Issue link: http://resourceworld.uberflip.com/i/460990
F E B R U A R Y / M A R C H 2 0 1 5 www.resourceworld.com 61 OIL & g A s T he Arctic is becoming a high-traffic zone. Energy companies seeking oil resources are pursuing drilling rights in the frigid region. The marine industry has increased use of shipping lanes that traverse the northern latitudes and the arctic is a strategic region for military operations. The remote, brutal environment poses unique challenges for communications, especially the ability to transfer large amounts of data reliably beyond the horizon. Minimal infrastructure and adverse terrain makes line of sight systems impractical. Geostationary satellites are obstructed by the earth's curvature, while polar and elliptical orbit satellites can be unreliable and expensive for ongoing use. One solution may be what is known as troposcatter technology first developed in the 1950s. Troposcatter transmission relies on the forward scattering of radio signal in the troposphere. Some of the ear- liest "tropo" links were installed above the Arctic Circle to provide communications between radar systems used for air defense. Today, using high-speed modems with advanced signal processing, digital voice, data and video can be streamed over the horizon, across reliable, secure links for commercial and military applications. Often used as a complement or replace- ment to microwave and satellite networks, troposcatter technology or "tropo" can be a cost-effective solution for point-to-point, beyond the line of sight data transmission. The tropo terminals scatter microwaves signals off the troposphere to create high- bandwidth communication links at ranges well beyond line of sight, and are espe- cially suited for operations in areas with challenging terrain. The majority of commercial troposcat- ter customers are in the oil and gas sector, where the technology is used to connect distant sites, such as a shore station to an offshore platform, or two offshore plat- forms that are too far apart to utilize line of sight communications. Other types of commercial operations located in remote regions, such as within the Arctic Circle, also are candidates for the technology. Currently, a hydroelectric facility in northern Canada is upgrading its communications link with a digital tro- poscatter connection that can provide data links of 20 Mb/s over a 203-km path to allow for monitoring of the electrical grid and fault detection. Because of the site's remote location and challenging accessibility during the winter months, the operator sought a reliable and robust application that meets very strin- gent latency and availability requirements, which tropo can provide. The environmentally hardened sys- tems and transit cases allow for maximum mobility and consistent performance regardless of the geographic variables encountered. Also tested in military applications, tro- poscatter solutions were deployed on the battlefields of both Iraq and Afghanistan which have similar combinations of broad plains and rocky terrains as the Arctic. In fact, mobile troposcatter systems established critical command and control links across the theater area of operations, providing communications over medium to long range links, and over obstructed Line of Sight (LOS) links. Data throughput reached 16 Mb/s at the time, with many systems later upgraded with 22 Mb/s capabilities. Digital Troposcatter is on the rise globally as a variety of end-users seek a consistent and durable alternative to SATCOM and LOS networks. Troposcatter technology's combination of long range, low latency, high capacity and reliability positions the technology as a viable solu- tion to industries and governments seeking a powerful solution in the communications toolkit. n Brian Burt is Vice President of International Marketing, Comtech Systems, Inc. Digital troposcatter communications links can provide Beyond the Line of Site data links of 20 Mb/s over 200 km. The environmentally hardened systems allow for consistent performance even in challenging environments such as the Arctic. Photo courtesy Comtech Systems, Inc. troposcatter technology aiding arctic communications by Brian Burt