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Comment by x0054 | Hacker News Reader

I wonder how it would compare to Exede Satellite service. I have Exede, it's the only thing available here in High Desert :( The speed is very good for what it is, I am getting 16-20 mbps down and 3mbps up. But, the latency is a huge issue for me. Most servers, even once in US, ping at 800ms, this makes it such a pain to do any kind of SSH server admin!

With low orbit devices I would imagine the latency should be better, I am guessing, but how much better.

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You should check out mosh for use on high latency connections:

https://mosh.mit.edu/

> With low orbit devices I would imagine the latency should be better, I am guessing, but how much better.

Your satellite's 22,000 miles above the earth. If you were directly under it, round trip latency would be 236ms.

If these satellites are 684 miles up, and you were directly under one, round trip latency would be just 7ms.

The distance between satellites, and between the satellites and whatever ground stations actually connect them to the 'net, will all be smaller because of the lower orbits. Latency should be much better.

FEC and interleaving induced latency will likely become the dominant term for LEOs.

What numbers are we talking?

Shorter distance + faster signal thru air can amount up to 30-50% lower latency.

This article has some pretty good info on the different approaches to satellite internet:

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2015-01-22/global-inter...

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