Scientists monitoring the ozone hole and water ecosystem from a Ukrainian research base in Antarctica will have better access to connectivity options thanks to a cloud-based services platform.
The National Antarctic Scientific Center (NANC) has connected to neXat, a capacity aggregator and PaaS, to monitor the signal levels, real-time traffic, service outages and network issues of its satellite connectivity.
neXat is enabling the NANC, which is based at Vernadsky Research station, located on Galindez Island in the Argentine Islands, to do this without the need to install a physical teleport.
The organization, part of the Ukrainian government’s Ministry of Education and Science, will also have the ability to pay for added capacity via direct ticketing and access added-value services.
“We’re delighted to be helping the NANC to continue its crucial work in Antarctica. This project is a big step for neXat and serves as proof that our platform is not constrained by locality and can offer services completely independent of a teleport’s location,” said Michele Ceragioli, Senior VP Global Solutions Enterprise at neXat.
“Typically, only the biggest operators can usually offer these services in a remote location like the geographical poles. Because of the range of teleports and satellites available through the neXat platform, choosing connectivity options is as simple as using Google for our customers –they can look to see if the area of their interest is covered by one of the satellites in our fleet and the job is done.”
neXat is a capacity aggregation platform that acts as an intermediary between teleport and hub operators and the marketplace. It offers its partner saccess to a network of resellers across five continents and operates as a Platform as a Service (PaaS) that offers a full suite of value-added services.
“neXat will enable the base to benefit from the same functionality of a teleport, but without the need to install a physical presence – which often comes with a high CAPEX. We’ll also be able to offer the base tailored services and will allow the operators at the NANC to be more flexible with their connectivity options”, added Mr Ceragioli.
Eugen Guzei, Director General at neXat’s local partner Radio satcom said: “Our company has provided communication services for NANC for over 10 years, starting with only 2-5 megabytes of BGAN traffic per month in 2008 for basic emailing. This was a complicated long-term project, taking into account location of the base and budgeting limitations.”
Satellite-based internet connectivity is crucial to the base for scientific activities and crew welfare. For example, online telemetry from a number of scientific instruments requires stable high-speed connection.
The NANC is responsible for the development and implementation of research programs in Antarctica and to ensure further development of the Vernadsky Research Base. It also conducts interdisciplinary research in the field of environmental protection.
The research complex of the station allows the implementation of comprehensive monitoring of environmental parameters in Antarctica at all levels of the geosphere – from tectonosphere to geospace.