ESA Telecom Applications Workshop Harwell April 2012

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ESA Telecom Applications Workshop

Harwell 18 – 19 April 2012

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• Background

• SatFinAfrica Objectives

• Applications

• Money Transfer

• Automatic Telling Machines

• Virtual Private Networks

• The Customer Management Tool

• Conclusion

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Background-1

SatADSL Mission

• Offer affordable broadband satellite service to Africa

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Background-2

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• 2009: Market study “Use of satellite triple play services in emerging

countries” (ARTES 1)

• 2010: Pre-operations of Astra2Connect in Africa

• 2011: SatFinAfrica Pilot Project co-funded by ESA (ARTES-4)

• 2012: Incorporation of SatADSL as the operating spin-off of

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Background-3: Business Model

Hub Operator

SES Satellite Operator Telesat

Technology Provider

Newtec

Managed Service Provider

End users

Corporate Services

Connectivity Bandwidth

Hub

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• End-users: over 500 active terminals

• 15 Distributors spread over Mali, Nigeria, Cameroon, RDC,

Congo Brazzaville, Gabon, Benin, Equatorial Guinea, Sierra

Leone, Zimbawe, etc.

Background-6: Achievements To Date

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1. Demonstrate the suitability of Sat3Play platform, originally

designed for serving the consumer market, for reliable and

secured financial institutions applications in emerging countries

2. Demonstrations and a Pilot Project in West Africa

• Financial institutions represent a fast growing market

• Their remote sites in West Africa are often too small to justify the investment

in a classic corporate VSAT

• Need to develop a corporate version of Astra2Connect service, tailored to

the need of financial institutions

• Pilot project to demonstrate the suitability of the new corporate service

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Applications – Money Transfer

• MTC User profile

:

– Money Transfer Companies (MTCs), and Microfinance

– Large number of branches spread all over the country

– Typical remote branch has a small LAN with 3-5 computers and telephones

– Need for affordable telecommunications service

• MTC User Applications:

– International/national financial applications based on client-server transactions

• Use of https protocol over the Internet

– Own Client-server banking applications (e.g. accounting)

• Use of https protocol over the Internet

• Server located in the MTC HQ connected by terrestrial means (fiber) to the Internet

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Applications – Money Transfer

Router Remote MTC branch A Sat3Play terminal + Router Sat3Play terminal + Router HQ in Africa Applications: -Money Gram -Money Express -VoIP -E-mail -Internet browsing ATA VoIP gateway ATA VoIP gateway ATA VoIP gateway Telstar T11N Astra2Connect Platform Luxembourg Remote MTC branch B

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Applications – Money Transfer

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 Tra ffi c Av era ge o n 30 mi n ( Kb ps ) Kb ps MTC – Site 1 FW Best Effort RT Best Effort FW High Priority RT High Priority

High Priority channels (FW and RT) carries critical client-server transactional traffic

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0 10 20 30 40 50 60 Tra ffi c Av era ge o n 30 mi n ( Kb ps ) Kb ps MTC – Site 2 FW Best Effort RT Best Effort FW High Priority RT High Priority

Applications – Money Transfer

FW High Priority traffic is chopped at 50Kbps (data rate averaged on 30 minutes) by channel size limitation

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• ATM User profile:

– Bank,

– Bank Consortium operating ATMs

• ATM User Applications:

– Connect ATMs in non-bank locations

– Authenticate and authorize cash transactions

– Closed Users Group (private IP addresses)

– VPN tunneling on the Internet

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Applications –

Automatic Telling Machines

VPN Router Remote ATM A Sat3Play terminal + Router Remote ATM B Sat3Play terminal + Router HQ in Africa Astra2Connect Platform Luxembourg Applications: -User identification / Authorization for cash delivery Telstar T11N VPN Router VPN Tunnel

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• VPN User profile:

– Banks,

– Insurances

• VPN User Applications:

– Connect remote branches to HQ

– Financial transactions and office applications

– Secure communications

 VPN IPsec tunneling (encrypted link)  SSL encryption

 Remote sites in an Intranet

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The Customer Management Tool - CMT

• Customer Management Tool (CMT) allows SatADSL and African

Distributors to manage and monitor Terminals

• Monitoring:

• List of terminals per distributor

• View on volumes consumed and connections parameters

• Need for technical assistance to Distributors and end-users

• Export of consumption information to billing and invoicing system

• Manage:

• Management of terminal life cycle (activation, de-activation)

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CMT Architectural Overview

Front Office Server @

Back Office Server

Hub GW 1 –A2C A2C Hub CMT NOCSA, NOCOP, Distributor DB

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Conclusions

• Solutions for the Financial applications developed, implemented and

tested

• Money Transfer Pilot completed

• 33 sites in Africa

• Excellent results in terms of transactions served

• Issue with service availability in heavy rain conditions

• VPN Demonstration started, in April 2012

• ATM pilot to start in October 2012

• CMT development, testing and validation completed

• Distributors highly satisfied

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Applications –

VPN SSL encryption

Remote Branch SatADSL Terminal HeadQuarter Telstar T11N SSL VPN SES Hub Luxembourg OpenVPN Client Software OpenVPN Client Software Remote Branch SatADSL Terminal SSL VPN OpenVPN Server SSL VPN SSL VPN

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Applications –

VPN Remote sites in Intranet

Remote Branch SatADSL Terminal Private IP Address HeadQuarter Telstar T11N VPN Router VPN Tunnel SES Hub Luxembourg VPN Router Remote Branch SatADSL Terminal Private IP Address LAN Router LAN Router Other Branch Other Branch Other Branch Company Intranet based