A video: How does Starlink Satellite Internet Work?

Short Summary for How does Starlink Satellite Internet Work?📡☄🖥 by Merlin

Satellite internet uses a large dish to beam data to and from a satellite orbiting 550km away, angled and steered continuously with advanced technology.

00:00 Satellite internet can send and receive data via focused, powerful beams.

03:45 Dishy has 1280 antennas arranged in honeycomb pattern to communicate with Starlink satellites

07:24 Using a patch antenna to generate an oscillating electric field resulting in an electromagnetic wave

10:50 Antennas use complex designs to receive and transmit specific frequencies

14:20 A beam with intensity and directionality reaching outer space is created by Dishy McFlatface and the Starlink Satellites through patterns of constructive and destructive interference.

17:46 The beam in Dishy is created by phase shifting the signal and angle it towards the satellite using GPS coordinates and starlink satellite’s orbital position

21:05 Phased arrays are used to steer the main beam of a single phased array to multiple objects and communication destinations with mid-flight internet capabilities.

24:31 Starlink can transfer up to 540 million bits per second using 64QAM modulation technique.

Detailed Summary for How does Starlink Satellite Internet Work?📡☄🖥 by Merlin

Satellite internet uses a large dish to beam data to and from a satellite orbiting 550km away, angled and steered continuously with advanced technology.

00:00 Satellite internet can send and receive data via focused, powerful beams.
– Starlink satellites require 20-millisecond latencies and need to be in a low earth orbit.
– Dishy McFlatface both sends and receives internet data from a Starlink satellite via motors and an ethernet cable.

03:45 Dishy has 1280 antennas arranged in honeycomb pattern to communicate with Starlink satellites
– Dishy’s massive printed circuit board (PCB) has 640 small microchips, 20 larger microchips, the main CPU, and GPS module.
– Aperture coupled patch antenna on Dishy has 6 layers and each stack of copper circles is controlled by microchips on the PCB to generate electromagnetic waves.

07:24 Using a patch antenna to generate an oscillating electric field resulting in an electromagnetic wave
– The oscillating electric field is generated by reversing the voltage to the copper feed wire resulting in the concentration of positive charges.
– The electric and magnetic fields propagate in all directions and can be made stronger by increasing voltage sent to the feedline.

10:50 Antennas use complex designs to receive and transmit specific frequencies
– Antennas have multiple layers, circular patches, and other features to support circular polarization and isolate adjacent antennas
– These antennas are designed with exact dimensions to receive and transmit only a narrow range of frequencies
– Beamforming can combine multiple antennas to focus electromagnetic waves into a powerful beam

14:20 A beam with intensity and directionality reaching outer space is created by Dishy McFlatface and the Starlink Satellites through patterns of constructive and destructive interference.
– The power and range of the main beam from 1280 antennas combined is closer to 3500 times that of a single antenna.
– Phased array beam steering enables the continuous sweeping and angling of the beam, providing hundreds of megabits of data every second.

17:46 The beam in Dishy is created by phase shifting the signal and angle it towards the satellite using GPS coordinates and starlink satellite’s orbital position
– Phase shifting changes the height, amplitude, and frequency of the signal
– Beam steering is achieved by continuously changing the timing of the peaks and troughs emitted by each antenna

21:05 Phased arrays are used to steer the main beam of a single phased array to multiple objects and communication destinations with mid-flight internet capabilities.
– Phased arrays have additional side lobes of lesser power due to constructive and destructive interference not being perfect
– Starlink satellites have 4 phased array antennas, 2 for communicating with multiple Dishys and 2 for relaying internet traffic to ground stations
– Data is sent between Dishy and Starlink satellite by encoding 6-bit binary values to each different permutation of amplitude and phase, each grouping of symbols lasts only 10 nanoseconds

24:31 Starlink can transfer up to 540 million bits per second using 64QAM modulation technique.
– Data transfer is shared between download and upload with about 74 milliseconds for send and 926 milliseconds for receive.
– Electromagnetic waves emitted by Dishy and satellite take about 2 milliseconds to reach each other.