Starlink : In a recent tweet, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said that in satellite-broadband, Starlink, ground stations will not be needed everywhere. This will help in achieving data transfer close to or even faster than the speed of light. Musk responded to Scott Manley, a Twitter user and Internet rocket scientist, who highlighted the need for downlink stations in broadband services.
Musk replied that the Starlink satellite would be launched in the next 4 to 6 months. (Starlink Satellites) inter-satellite, there will be ledger links so that no local downlink will be required.
Ambassador: Manley then asked if there was any real difference beyond lasers and whether they needed more onboard Processing for packet routing or if they needed enough before adding laser interlinks. They were built with capacity.
Musk replied, “Processing is not an issue. Laser links reduce ground station constraints, so data can travel from Sydney to London via space, which is lighter than fibre and shorter paths.” It has ~40% faster speed. Plus, there is no need for ground stations everywhere. The Arctic will have incredible bandwidth!”
Data transfer will be like the speed of light.
But does data transfer happen at the speed of light? To some extent. The speed of light is 3,00,000 km/s. The data is carried by infra-red light as it is the wavelength used on long-distance optic fibre, which travels around 2,00,000 km/s which is the speed of light through glass.
Users need to consider the possibility of Internet traffic and data passing through auxiliary network components such as network routers and optical transceivers, which slow down the average speed.
Musk’s Starlink has promised to provide broadband Internet service in areas with little or no network. Starlink states on its website that the Starlink Satellite will reduce latency to such an extent that it will achieve speeds that are typically not possible with traditional satellite Internet.
According to Starlink, “Latency is the time taken to transmit data from one point to another when satellites are further away from Earth, the latency is higher, resulting in poor performance for activities such as video calls and online gaming.” However, Starlink satellites are 60 times closer to Earth than traditional satellites earlier this month, Musk hinted that Starlink satellite broadband service might soon arrive in India, and the company is awaiting regulatory approval