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they were several years ago. Naturally this also means that when it does occur, the downtime is now drastically reduced. Technology and Data As an industry, we cannot solve the political situation, therefore we cannot stop instances of deliberate jamming happening, and at any point the situation could worsen, potentially causing the cases to spike dramatically. Therefore, it is crucial that we do everything that is in our power to be ready. By getting smarter, we can reduce, or try to prevent their effects when they do occur. Technology has greatly improved, but it needs to get even smarter, helping us to prevent more instances, and resolve others more quickly. Improving processes is also important, helping the resolution of interference run more smoothly, even when it involves cooperation with several different operators, in several different countries. In some cases, we should even consider introducing standards. For example, I believe that standardising the geolocation reporting process would lead to a much more cohesive approach, quicker recognition and acknowledgement of an intentional event, and faster resolution. It is something we need to work to achieve, together with the geolocation manufacturers and regulators.
trained will mean they are equipped to ensure they are not unintentionally causing interference and adding to those general statistics. It also means that they can easily identify interference when it occurs and determine the cause, and more importantly the steps they need to take to resolve it, whether that is talking to another operator, talking to the regulators, performing geolocation, or all of those things. We have talked a lot about Carrier ID (CID) over recent years and in the cases of intentional interference, it does not
seemingly play a big part, because of course the jammer is very unlikely to transmit an ID. However, think about a road with cars. If someone robs a bank then drives away in a car with no licence plates, as long as everyone else has a properly displayed licence plate, the robber will stand out like a sore thumb and be easy to catch. It is the same with CID, if we ensure every legitimate uplink carrier has CID, then spotting those jammers will be much more easy!. PRO Martin Coleman is the Executive Director at the Satellite Interference Reduction Group (IRG)
Intentional interference statistics 2012
X-pol Intentional RFI Others
22% 54% 24%
Correct Operation There is also a great amount to be gained by ensuring everyone in the region is operating correctly. For example, ensuring staff at all the broadcasters and uplinkers are properly
2013
43%
47%
2014
10%
“Nowadays, operators are working much more closely together, to share information on an event, characterise it, and perform geolocation, to produce solid evidence“ MARTIN ColEMAN, Executive Director, IRG
42 | SatellitePro | September 2015
25% 67%
8%