23rd Day

Due to Friday there is some time to continue office work and make some tests with our mobile communication device. We use a BGAN conncetion (Broadband Global Area Network) solution provided by Inmarsat. The device we use is a NERA Wordpro 1000 (0,5 kg) Satellite modem which can provide Internet access and Telephone services. We have just subscibed to the Internet service as we do not intend to use the telephone service capacity of the device. After initialization the device needs some 30 seconds to connect to the satellite. Actually there are two geostationery satellites covering most areas of the world. An acoustic signal and a status bar show the signal strenth and help to adjust the antenna properly to the south. As the USB connection cable to the device is quiete short it needs some preparation in terms where to put the antenna device and the laptop to ensure some kind of comfortable working conditions. Usually I have to fix the antenna device somehow on the open window sitting myself inside the room in shadow condiotions as the strong sunlight outside make it impossible to see anything on the screen. The preparation for transmission mostly occupy the most time and nerves as the small device and the sounds attract always the attention of some bystanders that come closer to inspect the device from short range. As a result they stand in front of the antenna and disturb the connection with the satellite. Some speed results achieved with German home page

Download
177 kbit/s (22 kByte/s)

Upload
21 kbit/s (3 kByte/s)

From the tests it becomes clear the the service put emphasis in the download connection. Uploading of images and messages becomes an unpleaseant experience as time by time the the device announces some error so that the conection gets lost and the procedure has to be repeatead from the beginning. Despite several testings I cannot find out if the connection errors are due to hardware or software failures as there are limited possibilties provided by the system to trace system failures.

Addendum (after return)
For comparison, the test results using a desktop computer connected to University cable network:

Download-Geschwindigkeit:
30.589 kbit/s (3.824 kByte/s)

Upload-Geschwindigkeit:
7.163 kbit/s (895 kByte/s)