Iridium Datacomms Issues for Polar Research
Discussion Forum Announcement
For further information, please contact:
Joe Mastroianni
(iceowl [at] mac.com)
(Joe [at] isthisthingon.com)
Dear Colleagues:
The use of Iridium is growing in both the US Antarctic Program (USAP)
and the Arctic Sciences Program, not only for voice but (importantly) as
a means of providing data reporting from remote field instrumentation,
without the need for other communications infrastructure (repeaters,
etc.). There are a number of functional and technical issues that can
easily confound Iridium users. Topics that come to mind include
connectivity, drop-outs, inter-system compatibility, realistic
throughput, hardware tradeoffs, and implementation. The Arctic research
community is invited to join an addressee list suggested by Pat Smith of
the USAP, to continue dialogue about the use of Iridium for field
communications.
Picking up a handset and having a gravelly conversation is one thing;
trying to pump a megabyte of data is a whole different story. There is,
therefore, substantial benefit to be derived from developing a working
knowledge and experience base shared among like-minded Comms and
Hardware people: and subsequently to make this available to Antarctic
and Arctic researchers who may have specific questions, may need
specific consulting, or may simply need to be given a shopping list and
a specialist's phone number.
In our own work (USAP Project O-314) we have developed autonomous
solar-powered modules including a small datalogger with Iridium
reporting. This unit was set down on the ground near Lake Hoare in the
McMurdo Dry Valleys and sent back data reports on a 12-hour basis during
the 03/04 season. We have also constructed larger units and have been
generally engaged in instrumentation development. Arising from
conversations with Pat Smith, we agreed to act as a clearinghouse for
Iridium experience, whether it be substantive; experiential; anecdotal;
or just plain invective.
Joe Mastroianni, team member of O-314, performed all of our own Iridium
development in the 2003 off-season. He has agreed to be our 'point
person' and to give his best effort to developing a threaded discussion
site. Joe's personal expertise lies in comms and software management. My
abilities are more on the hardware end, and between us we'll try to
comment and cross-reference any thoughts or input that you may have.
Please start feeding your ideas and comments to:
Joe Mastroianni
(iceowl [at] mac.com)
(Joe [at] isthisthingon.com)
Copy this message to any other colleagues who may be involved or
interested. Our objective (or hope) is to gather enough working
knowledge within the next couple of years to be able to come up with
realistic 'cookbooks' that will be of practical use to less-technical
grantees.
Thanks,
Tony Hansen
O-314