Alternative CDN Options Fall Short for NOAA Data Delivery, Weather Interests Say

Ligado keeps underestimating the availability requirement of weather satellite data, and satellite delivery was designed for higher availability "than even the best Internet connectivity and cloud services provide today," a group of weather interests said in an FCC RM-11681 letter posted Thursday. They said various Internet connectivity options for non-National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration users of NOAA data don't "provide a suitable alternative" to weather satellite data. They said NOAA's Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite R-series of satellites was designed with a ground segment rebroadcast service on 1686.6 MHz to have a 99.988 percent availability over a 30-day period -- essentially meaning no more than five minutes of downtime a month. For an alternative content delivery network (CDN), "this is a particularly high bar," the weather interests said, saying non-NOAA users of the data can't all afford one-time costs of an antenna and associated site and installation. Typical service level agreements from major providers of data services or cloud services fall short of that 99.988 percent goal, meaning cloud services could have outages the equivalent of 20 to 40 minutes a month, they said. Without "a clear and reliable alternative to important data transmissions," the FCC shouldn't proceed with rulemaking regarding commercial sharing of the 1675-1680 MHz band, they said. The letter was signed by American Meteorological Society Executive Director Keith Seitter, American Geophysical Union Executive Director Christine McEntee and University of Wisconsin-Madison's Space Science and Engineering Center Interim Director Steven Ackerman. Ligado in a statement said, "Questions raised by these groups are the very questions that should be discussed and resolved during" an NPRM "process regarding the potential auction of the 1675-1680 spectrum band, which a broad group of industry stakeholders have asked the FCC to pursue. An NPRM would seek further public comment and allow everyone ample opportunity to express remaining concerns and present solutions. Ligado has developed a cloud-based content delivery network for NOAA’s weather data that is as reliable and fast as the current satellite delivery method. George Mason University is currently using this network, and they find that it not only delivers critical NOAA weather data with high reliability and low latency, but it makes sure the data will be available to everyone in real time -- not just a select few with the resources to purchase and operate very expensive satellite receiver equipment.”