Canada has a rich history of firsts in the development of Satellite Communications. This includes deployment of
the first Domestic Satellite system, the first Ka Band Commercial Broadband System, the first Regional Mobile
Satellite System and pioneering work in early Ku Band in the origins of Direct to Home TV. In the area of applications its vast territories ensure that much of its population relies on satellites for both broadcast and two way links and it has important networks supporting distance learning, distance health and even distance judiciary. Its challenges are very similar to those faced in Australia in providing equal broadband access to all of its population over vast distances in a combination of Urban Centres and Rural even Desert terrain.
This presentation will review some of the important milestones of Canada’s history in Satellite Communications, but it will also look at current trends in Satellite Payload and Ground technologies and how these technologies will enable enhanced Commercial and Defence satellite services worldwide, but in particular Canada’s remote and Northern Territories.
This forward look with include Highly Flexible Processed Payloads, Geosynchronous High Throughput Satellites (HTS) and innovative Mega Constellations of Low Earth Orbiting Satellites that promise to provide Global low latency broadband services, better integrated with the terrestrial network. Finally, it will review Canada’s plans for supporting its Defence Forces in their growing task of policing Canada’s Arctic territories and the Northwest Passage and will describe one concept being proposed that is based on a highly inclined elliptical orbit.