ASTRA Broadband Interactive System-a Ka-band return path for IP connectivity

The ASTRA Broadband Interactive System provides a Ka-band return path transmitted from a satellite interactive terminal located at the user premises thus complementing new and existing ASTRA Ku-band forward path services by forming a 2-way end-end network via satellite. The forward path is DVB/MPEG-2 based offering data rates of up to 38 Mbit/s and the return path utilises multiple frequency time division multiple access (MF-TDMA) to efficiently allocate bandwidth on-demand at data rates of up to 2 Mbit/s from a 120 cm antenna. The ASTRA Broadband Interactive System will utilise the Ka-band payload on ASTRA 1H, which has been launched in June 1999, and will become the first pan-European Ka-band commercial service. The commercial launch is planned for mid 2000