0:16
It is designed with two elements.
The outdoor unit, made of the antenna, and the BUC and LNB pair.
Respectively the transmission and reception amplifiers,
with the conversions in the Ka and Ku bands.
Regarding the indoor unit, there is the Maxibox itself,
a hardened case which includes a 12-unit rack
to house the satellite modem among different elements.
1:31
On the left, from bottom to top, we can see the inverter
which filters the supplied power and potentially cleans it
if it is supplied by a power generator.
The inverter also includes a battery
allowing a backup supply of about 40 minutes.
This inverter is located below a drawer
used to store the fixed and wireless telephones.
2:15
A bit higher up the rack,
we can find the different communicating elements.
On the left, the DECT terminal for wireless phones
and its power over Ethernet.
2:30
This DECT terminal outputs voice-over-IP traffic
via the Ethernet plug.
On the right, on this same rack, there is a network device
combining several functions: switch, router and Wi-Fi access point.
2:48
The next photos show the case, its accessories and the back panel.
Regarding the back panel, excuse us as it is a recycled part.
There is a plug for the voice-over-IP fixed phone
and another for Internet access.
The satellite modem can thus be plugged here.
3:36
The system is made of three IP networks.
So they have different network addresses.
The first network, illustrated by the blue rectangle,
hosts the wired devices: voice-over-IP fixed phone,
DECT terminal, voice-over-IP calling server and user PCs.
4:08
We have chosen to separate, from an IP point of view,
wired and wireless networks
in order to be able to protect them from each other if necessary.
With this in mind, the wired network can have more privileges
than the wireless network.
Finally, a third network, illustrated by the purple rectangle,
connects the modem to the central network device.
4:49
On this illustration, we can see the different network functions
provided by the devices.
On the blue and green networks, we have the routing
which commutes packets between different IP networks,
the switching to commute packets within the same network,
and a DHCP server to distribute IP addresses
when the devices are plugged in.
The blue wired network adds a micro DNS server
to name devices such as the voice-over-IP server
or the fixed telephone.
5:24
Regarding the network connecting the central element and the modem,
there is also some routing,
but also what we call NAT or Network Address Translation.
This mechanism allows us to only show a single address outside
that happens to be the address
the modem provides to the central device.
Finally, to make sure that everyone shares the available resources
in an efficient way, we have installed quality of service policies, QoS,
to protect voice-over-IP in particular.
These policies imply packet marking
and throughput reservation at the output of the terminal.
Indeed, the uplink is generally more constrained than the downlink.
6:16
Here you can see two different models. This modem plays several roles
as we illustrated it during the other sequences.
These roles are clearly shown by the different connectors.
On the one hand, we have F-type RF plugs
to transmit and receive RF signals via a coaxial cable.
With other manufacturers there can be a single cable.
On the other hand, there is a RJ45 Ethernet-type network plug
to send and receive Internet traffic.
6:51
Based on the success of our Maxibox,
we wanted to push the concept a bit further.
Let me introduce you its progeny: the Minibox and the Microbox.
The Minibox is housed in a 4-unit rack.
It is more or less the Maxibox without DECT telephony
nor the inverter power management.
We have replaced the PC by an on-chip system,
a model called Odroid, to host the local Web services.
The Microbox is quite similar
but we have pushed integration a bit further,
it is still ongoing by the way, by using a hardened suitcase.
This time, in order to change and test different systems,
we chose the Raspberry Pi 2 on-chip system.
Minibox and Microbox provide the same services,
voice-over-IP telephony via the fixed telephone,
and wired and wireless Internet access.
Furthermore, both host a local Web server.
All these boxes aim at a nomad use.
In the setting of indoor Internet, it is much simpler.
The satellite modem will more or less play the same role as an ADSL box
if we had access to ADSL. In terms of material cost,
the Maxibox costs a bit less than 3 000 euros,
the Minibox a bit less than 500 euros
and the Microbox a bit less than 200 euros.
Of course, to this price we must add the price of the Internet access
no matter the technology used.
To conclude, we can say that the antenna and the satellite modem
are only the tip of the iceberg.
We must also take into account everything that will add value
to the Internet access service. This is precisely the role
of these different boxes we have introduced.