ZipPhaser Features and Benefits to the Yacht Owner
ZipPhaser can be installed on a flat or slanted surface of the Yacht
The phase array antenna is hermetically sealed to keep out moisture
Installation and setup can typically be done in a 4 to 6 hours
Light phase array antenna weighs only 65lbs and is 5.9" high
No wind drag and aesthetically blends with the design of the yacht
Additional antennas can be added for additional bandwidth
ZipPhaser antennas can be painted to match the color of the deck or mast
Advanced design gives you the option of mounting the antenna flush with the deck
Overloaded Mast
No more domes when it comes to increasing bandwidth and adding additional antennas. Below is an application brief describing why a superyacht owners should have specified ZipPhaser in place of stabilizing radome antennas. It also explains the short falls of satellite communications as it relates to VPN networks and why additional antennas are required. It is P&L's perspective you don't have to ruin the look of your yacht to enjoy expanded communications to stay in touch at sea.
The reason to consider ZipPhaser over Radome antennas
VPN over Satellite A comparison of approaches for corporate VPN's over satellite on yachts
As awareness of satellite Internet access becomes more wide spread, demand for secure connections from remote locations to corporate local area networks continues to increase. The high latency inherent in geosynchronous satellite connections has presented a significant obstacle to efficient virtual private network (VPN) connections over satellite. Various solutions to carrying IP traffic over satellite have been proposed, but each one has had some limitation that prevented it from becoming widely adopted.
The Problem:
In order for a two-way satellite service to perform properly in conjunction with traditional terrestrial networks (Internet, Intranet), satellite data networks must employ special techniques to deal with the extra 44,600- mile space segment of the connection. Without those steps, the increased latency, the time required to traverse the extra distance, means that TCP severely limits performance. The Internet relies on the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) to ensure packet delivery without errors. TCP works by sending a certain amount of data, the “window size,” then waiting for the receiver to send an acknowledgment of receipt. With TCP, the sender cannot transmit more data until it has received an acknowledgment. If an acknowledgment does not arrive in a timely manner, TCP assumes the packet was lost (discarded due to network congestion) and resends it. When packets go unacknowledged, TCP also slows the transmission rate to reduce congestion and to minimize the need for retransmissions. TCP/IP sessions start out sending data slowly. Speed builds as the rate of the acknowledgments verifies the network’s capacity to carry more traffic. This is known as slow-start, followed by a ramp-up in speed. The speed of the connection builds until the sender detects packet loss from a lack of an acknowledgment. This allows TCP to achieve the fastest practical data transfer rate for the conditions present on the network. Terrestrial networks typically have round-trip latencies in the range of 35 to 100 ms. Satellite networks, due to the distance of geosynchronous satellites above the equator, require 550 ms or more. Some satellite connections have much higher latencies. Depending upon the satellite hardware and subscription policy of the service provider, latencies of 800 ms to as much at 2,000 ms or more can occur. TCP interprets the additional satellite transit time as network congestion. If uncorrected, this effect causes the network to send all additional packets at the slow- start rate. IPsec VPNs not only encrypt the data portion of packets, they also encrypt the TCP port number and IP address of the sender’s computer. (Think of TCP port as the apartment number while the IP address is that of the building.) Consequently, only the VPN software at the remote site can decipher where packets originated and acknowledge receipt of data. Popular IPsec VPNs, therefore, defeat TCP acceleration over satellite links because ground stations cannot adjust the fields in the header when those fields are encrypted. This situation requires that acknowledgments transit the space segment twice (over and back) and results in substantial performance degradation. The impact on performance increases as the latency rises.
The Solution:
We recently spoke to a chief engineer who has a problem with bandwidth and speed on his 162' M/Y. The yacht charters for $155,000.00 per week and most of the customers are corporate executives who need access to their company VPN. They initially had two KVH antennas mounted on the communication mast. When the yacht was chartered their customers did not have enough bandwidth to access their VPN network because of the latency problem described above. Their solution was to add another KVH antenna to expand the bandwidth. This beautiful yacht was stuck with an eye sore over the pilot house and it is now bandwidth restricted due to size of adding more radome antennas. At this point to service all the staterooms with VPN access over the satellite link they have to ruin the look of the yacht. This yacht will in turn charter less as a result. If ZipPhaser was installed on this yacht the owner could install six antennas and provide enough bandwidth on the yacht for all the VPN requirements and remain the beautiful yacht it was designed to be. Most customers who can afford to charter or buy superyachts will encounter a similar problem and ZipPhaser can provide the solution to expanded bandwidth for IPsec VPN networks without sacrificing the design aesthetics of the yacht.
