Inmarsat 4: satellite communications for a mobile planet

by Ruy Pinto, Director of Satellite Control and Navigation, Inmarsat

Tuesday 13 September 2005

Important: The venue for this lecture is IEE Savoy Place, and NOT RAeS, Hamilton Place

Co-organised with the IEE

Public open lecture - All visitors welcome - No admission fee - No tickets required - No advance booking - Just turn up ! - Doors open 5:30pm

Introduction

The first of the new generation Inmarsat 4 (I-4) satellites was launched on 11 March 2005, and is now fully operational, carrying the full set of digital communications services that was previously carried on its predecessor, the Inmarsat-3 satellite in the Indian Ocean region.

The introduction of Broadband Global Area Network (BGAN) services will begin later this year, delivering broadband data and voice through mobile satellite terminals. With the second I-4 satellite scheduled for launch in the autumn of 2005, BGAN will offer broadband services to mobile users almost anywhere on the planet. The I-4 satellites' capability to concentrate bandwidth into powerful spotbeams will enable Inmarsat to provide new services with added capacity and functionality. The satellites are built by EADS Astrium, and, with a launch mass on nearly six tonnes, are amongst the largest and most sophisticated commercial communication satellites ever launched.

This evening lecture will present the Inmarsat 4 satellites and their associated ground segment, and discuss the way that the market for BGAN led to the development of this world-leading system.

Ruy Pinto is Director of Satellite Control and Navigation for Inmarsat; with responsibility for the on-station control of the fleet of Inmarsat satellites and the development of all satellite control functionality and activities associated with both the current and future Inmarsat satellite generations. For the past 15 years, Ruy has held various technical and managerial roles at Inmarsat, involved in the design, development, implementation and support of the Inmarsat Satellite Control System. Ruy has also taken the lead on developing the commercial opportunities of satellite control services, including launch support activities for third-party operators and the marketing of Inmarsat satellite control software. He also manages the technical and commercial utilisation of the Navigation services offered by Inmarsat on our Inmarsat-3 and Inmarsat-4 satellites. Finally, Ruy has been instrumental in the creation of iNavSat, the partnership between Inmarsat, EADS and Thales created with the objective of becoming the Galileo System Concessionaire. iNavSat has recently been selected as one of two consortia for final negotiations with the EU for that purpose.

In his early career, Ruy moved into software engineering, where his main technical expertise lies, and worked at the BRASILSAT Satellite Control Centre in the areas of satellite control software and hardware. He has also worked as a consultant for SES, a Luxembourg-based direct satellite TV provider, as software and ground segment consultant, and on VSAT networks in the area of data communications software and data networks, where he project managed the implementation of a seven hundred terminals VSAT network.

Ruy graduated in Electronics Engineering in 1981 in Brazil, following this with post-graduate studies in Digital Telecommunication Systems. Ruy Pinto is also as a Board Member of INVSAT, a fully owned Inmarsat subsidiary dedicated to VSAT services.