You're right. I updated it to "in a single sector". The context is about the future demand of software engineers, hence I was wondering if it would be possible that we wouldn't have enough demand for such profession, despite that the entire society will benefit for the dropping unit cost and probably invented a lot of different demand in other fields.
Every single commercial mobile satellite system, other than VSAT needs to tell the network where it is in order to function. None of them are designed for low probability of interception/detection.
But this is getting pretty complicated for private citizens without internet access to organize with the protests, sanctions, falling currency and government killing thousands of people, no?
Asynchronous (you don't know when and where you will get Internet/local network connectivity) mesh (there is no gov infrastructure to be trusted) networking in presence of malicious (gov operated) and unreliable (destroyed by gov) nodes is probably among hardest problems known to computer science.
Umm, executive prioritization genuinely determines what gets built. "Design for LPI/LPD" is exactly the kind of strategic call that comes from leadership, not something engineers spontaneously add to the roadmap.
That said, the technical problem is hard regardless. Direction-finding equipment can locate them. Moving helps but you are broadcasting position whenever active. Military SATCOM (MUOS, AEHF) uses frequency hopping, directional antennas, burst transmissions, techniques Starlink was not architected for.
The mesh idea has a bandwidth mismatch problem too. BLE tops out around 1 Mbps; Starlink pushes 100+. You would want 802.11s or a MANET protocol, but then you just have a cluster of RF emitters pointing back at the terminal anyway.
on tech side, I'm not wireless-guy, so I'm giving ble as an example ('something like ble') not as some prescription
btw, maybe elon could add those SATCOM features to starlink? (or is it physically costly -- eg. require changing those satelite hardwares? or would some software update do?)
Just say Starlink or SpaceX, obviously. When would you ever say "Bill should work on fixing Outlook" or "Mark should improve the WhatsApp gif picker"??
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