Technical White Paper
This document compares the satellite airtime pricing models with the use of the NRL from the below satellite providers:
- Globalstar
- Inmarsat BGAN M2M
- Iridium
This document is intended as a guide only, it is illustrative only, in US$, and should not be used to calculate exact costs, as there may be specially priced services for some customers. The data models illustrate the typical airtime costs for two types of application, namely
- an alert /small data application, e.g. a water level sensor for monitoring tank level, which only transmits the level once or twice per day and therefore requiring a very small amount of data, is well served by message services such as the Iridium or Microsatellite
- a river measurement station or an industrial measurement application with several different instruments measuring routinely, perhaps every 15 minutes needing a larger amount of data is well served by services such as Inmarsat M2M and Globalstar
There are two service types to consider.
One being a full two-way service requiring a full IP connection, which delivers full functionality and the ability to closely couple with the data logger / RTU Neon field unit and provides services such as reprogramming and reconfiguration in the field from a web browser. The other being a message based, essentially one-way connection, which delivers the sensor data only. For this document, we call these a full-service data and a message based data service.
The data models also assume power is removed from the Inmarsat BGAN M2M for the purpose of modelling, requiring these systems to re-establish a session, with the corresponding session re-establishment overhead each time they communicate. If these systems have power systems dimensioned such that power can remain on, then the session re-establishment overheads will be eliminated.
In broad terms, short-burst data services cost in the order of 50 to 100 cents per kilobyte and Inmarsat BGAN services cost in the order of 1 to 3 cents per kilobyte.
Indicative Monthly Data Volume Scenarios for Full Service Data
Scenarios for full-service data
- Very Low Data Volume – Once a Day 3 data channels once per day = 222 bytes per day or 7KB per month
- Low Data Volume – Once an Hour 3 data channels every hour = 222 bytes per hour or 164KB per month
- High Data Volume – Once every 5 Minutes 6 data channels every 5 minutes = 2736 bytes per hour or 2MB per month
- Medium Resolution Serial Camera pictures Once an Hour = 25k per hour or 20MB per month
- High-Resolution IP Camera pictures Once an Hour = 110k per hour or 88MB per month
Scenarios for message service data
- Very Low Data Volume – Once a Day 3 data channels once per day = 12 bytes per day or 372 bytes per month
- Low Data Volume – Once an Hour 3 data channels every hour = 12 bytes per hour or 8928 bytes per month
- High Data Volume – Once every 5 Minutes 6 data channels every 5 minutes = 72 bytes per hour or 107,136 bytes per month
Communications Overhead Assumptions
The Neon Remote Terminal and Neon Server Protocol incur packet overheads of 76 bytes per packet.
For Log Data packets, overheads can be proportionately large. E.g. 76 bytes of Header and 6 bytes of Log Data payload equals 82 bytes total.
Each time a Neon Remote Terminal communicates with the server it also sends 64 bytes of RTD with a 76-byte header for a total of 140 bytes. So, if 3 data channels are being logged, it is not just 6 bytes of data that is sent but rather two packets of total size (82+140)=222 bytes. Serial Camera payloads incur overheads of approximately 9.6%. IP Camera overheads incur slightly smaller overheads of approximately 3.7%. An 894-byte packet can contain a maximum 818 bytes of payload.
There will be additional data overheads for establishing the PPP comms session plus acknowledgements etc between the server and the logger.
Note that when using message services like Iridium and Microsatellite the full Neon server protocol is not implemented because these networks have high latency and cost making it impractical, this means that there will be no protocol overheads when these services are used and it will be just encoded logged data that is transmitted.
Camera Payload Sizes- Still Video Images
- Medium resolution Serial Camera pictures (640×480) are 25K each
- High-resolution IP Camera pictures (1280×800) are 110k each
Camera Payload Size- Video
- Medium resolution IP Camera video (800x600x2fps) is 1MB per minute
Globalstar Model
Globalstar Plan = Data30
Very Low Data Voulme
Low Data Voulme
High Data Voulme
Medium Res Photo
High Res Photo
Monthly Base Price
$30.00
$30.00
$30.00
$30.00
$30.00
Comms Frequency
1 daily
1 hour
5 minutes
1 hour
1 hour
Bytes per Comms
224
224
230
25,000
110,000
Bytes per second
818
818
818
818
818
Packets per Comms inc. 2 OH
2
2
2
33
136
10 Seconds per Comms
1
1
1
4
14
Comms per Month
31
732
8784
732
732
First 10 Second Packets per Month
31
732
8784
732
732
Next 10 Second Packets per Month
0
0
0
2196
9516
Cents per First 10 Second Packets
4
4
4
4
4
Cents per Next 10 Second Packets
16.67
16.67
16.67
16.67
16.67
Monthly Packet Price
$1.24
$29.28
$351.36
$395.35
$1615.60
Minus Monthly Included Calls
-$10.00
-$10.00
-$10.00
-$10.00
-$10.00
Monthly Total Price
$30
$30
$371.36
$415.35
$1,635.60
Inmarsat BGAN M2M Service Model Modem Cycled Every Session/Lower Volume/Plan based
Hughes 9502 satellite
Data charged in bytes, not by time
Comms session = 28-byte protocol overhead data per packet. 28-byte log data
Billing increments for standard IP is rounded up to next 1 kilobyte every session.
BGAN M2M 12 Month Plan Per SIM Card
Very Low Data Voulme
Low Data Voulme
High Data Voulme
Medium Res Photo
High Res Photo
Comms Frequency
1 daily
1 hour
10 minutes
1 hour
1 hour
Payload Bytes per Comms
222
222
240*1
25,000
110,000
Billing Bytes per Month
30,500
732,000
4,392,000
31,671,976
136,867,892
Monthly Subscription Cost
$36.70
$36.70
$53.90
$136.70
$136.70
Monthly Allowance
2MB
2MB
5MB
20MB
20MB
$/MB Out of Bundle
$23.35
$23.35
$13.30
$6.80
$6.85
Monthly Total Price
$37
$37
$54
$216
$937
Inmarsat BGAN M2M Service Model Modem Cycled Once Per Day/Higher Volume/Plan based
BGAN M2M 12 Month Plan Per SIM Card
Low Data Voulme
High Data Voulme
High Data Voulme
5 Minute Data+Medium Res Photo
5 Minute Data+Medium Res Photo
Comms Frequency
1 daily
5 minutes
1minute
1 per day
3 per day
Payload Bytes per Comms
240
240
240
25,000
25,000
Billing Bytes per Month
1,055,080
2,109,160
10,541,800
2,969,604
5,977,657
Monthly Subscription Cost
$36.50
$36.50
$95.00
$53.90
$53.90
Monthly Allowance
2MB
2MB
10MB
5MB
5MB
$/MB Out of Bundle
$23.35
$23.35
$9.50
$13.30
$13.30
Monthly Total Price
$37
$39
$100
$54
$67
Inmarsat BGAN M2M Service Model Modem Cycled Every Session/High SIMS Data Pool Based
Hughes 9502 satellite modem
Data charged in bytes, not by time
Assume fixed $10.00 per SIM monthly fee and $10.00 per MB (Some providers may offer this for large numbers of SIM cards)
BGAN M2M 12 Month Plan Per SIM Card
Very Low Data Voulme
Low Data Voulme
High Data Voulme
Medium Res Photo
High Res Photo
Comms Frequency
1 daily
1 hour
10 minutes
1 hour
1 hour
Payload Bytes per Comms
222
222
240*1
25,000
110,000
Billing Bytes per Month
30,500
732,000
4,392,000
31,671,976
136,867,892
Monthly Subscription Cost
$10
$10
$10
$10
$10
Monthly Allowance
0MB
0MB
0MB
0MB
0MB
$/MB Out of Bundle
$10
$10
$10
$10
$10
Monthly Total Price
$10
$17
$54
$327
$1,379
Inmarsat BGAN M2M Service Model Modem Cycled Once Per Day/High SIMS Data Pool Based
Hughes 9502 satellite modem
Data charged in bytes, not by time
Assume fixed $10.00 per SIM monthly fee and $10.00 per MB (Some providers may offer this for large numbers of SIM cards)
BGAN M2M 12 Month Plan Per SIM Card
Low Data Voulme
High Data Voulme
High Data Voulme
5 Minute Data+Medium Res Photo
5 Minute Data+Medium Res Photo
Comms Frequency
1 daily
5 minutes
1minute
1 per day
3 per day
Payload Bytes per Comms
240
240
240
25,000
25,000
Billing Bytes per Month
1,055,080
2,109,160
10,541,800
2,969,604
5,977,657
Monthly Subscription Cost
$10
$10
$10
$10
$10
Monthly Allowance
0MB
0MB
0MB
0MB
0MB
$/MB Out of Bundle
$10
$10
$10
$10
$10
Monthly Total Price
$21
$31
$115
$40
$70
Iridium Models
***Pricing per 10-byte block and using the Corporate and Government rate plans provided by Pivotel service provider.
Data charged in bytes, not by time. Data is charged in 10-byte block increments, below example shows if the data fits within the 10-byte block (8 bytes)
