The role of satellite communication in network reliability improvement

One of the essential aspects of application of the satellite communication in Russia is connected with the improvement of the reliability of present communication systems. A program for creating a satellite telecommunication system for the gas industry of Russia (system "Yamal") is being developed by JSC GAZCOM. The satellite system will be especially useful for the important gas production centres of the North-Tumen region in West Siberia, where terrestrial communications are not fully developed. This paper presents the results of a comparison of the reliability of the existing communication network and the future network using satellite communications. An original application program package was used for the calculations. The results obtained show that using satellite communication allows a reduction of the unavailability by more than tenfold.