Amazon Project Kuiper OISLs

Michael Sheetz , space reporter at CNBC and 亚马逊 CEO Andy Jassy announced today that Amazon successfully tested the ability to optically link two prototype Kuiper satellites at 100 Gbps over a distance of ~600 miles (close to 1 thousand kilometers). This is a great news for the space sector and a solid step towards Amazon's goal of deploying a mesh optical network in space.

Official announcements: Amazon PR - CNBC article

Prototype vs production satellites

Amazon tested laser links with its Kuiper prototype satellites, maintaining a connection of 100 Gbps across multiple tests. Amazon also officially announced that optical inter-satellite links (OISL) will be part of Amazon’s production satellites when they start deploying them in 2024.

"With optical inter-satellite links across our satellite constellation, Project Kuiper will effectively operate as a mesh network in space"

Rajeev Badyal, Project Kuiper's vice president of technology.

“OISL will be part of Kuiper right from the beginning.”

Prafulla Masalkar. Amazon Director, Optical Inter-Satellite Links

Kuiper vs glass fiber: Latency simulation

For LEO satcom constellations to beat fiber latency across long distances, satellites need optical cross links (OISLs) but minimizing delay variations also requires densified constellations (e.g. Kuiper and Starlink)

NCAT4 Simulation: Propagation latency between NYC and London - Assumptions:

-?????? Single Kuiper shell (51.9deg 630km; 1,156 sats) vs great-circle glass fiber

-?????? 4 OISLs per satellite connecting nearest satellites within ISL FoV and reach.

Simulation via the NCAT4 constellations analysis toolkit

Kuiper gateway stations

Assuming all Kuiper satellites will have 100 Gbps OISLs, I now wonder if Amazon will need (at least initially) to deploy ground "gateway" stations beyond those one would expect to be installed at or nearby AWS availability-zone datacenters (unconfirmed by Amazon).

If the 100 Gbps OISLs work as planned for the entire constellation, it is possible that Kuiper will not need many gateways. Indeed, with OISLs, gateway stations could be deployed in a rather opportunistic way.

All in all, 100 Gbps OISLs is great news for the entire telecom industry and for the space sector in particular. The announcement pushes LEO constellations closer a possible reality described in a 2020 NSR, an Analysys Mason company article titled “LEO Speed: When Milliseconds are Worth $ Millions”