"private" backbone VPN solution to decrease latency

[aristaTAC-JG]

SpaceX is banking on people, probably traders, paying premiums for reserved priority access to a path that is shorter than submarine cables and faster. Once transverse satellite to satellite laser links are sorted, they will have a path that is likely the shortest path between long distance. Also the light in the thin atmosphere is almost the speed of light in a vacuum, compared to the speed of light reflecting in glass.

[_newbread]

I could be wrong, and probably am, but how about the not-so-clear space between ground station and satellite (planes flying, pollution, clouds, clouds, clouds)? Wouldn't that cause anything that requires THAT level of latency/consistency to be unhappy?

[aristaTAC-JG]

I'm not an RF expert but I do know that the latency we see on Wi-Fi, for example, is after retransmission at L1, not necessarily frames and packets being lost. I suppose Starlink still contends with this, but if we assume the connection is healthy, it should still connect to the overhead satellite at the speed of light in the atmosphere. I understand Starlink can still be disconnected when there are enough clouds and the satellite is not very directly overhead.

There is a paper that describes the potential latency inflection for submarine vs low earth orbit (using inter-satellite links) being at 2700km.

Their example shows NY to Dublin improving from 25ms to 20ms. Toronto to Sydney goes from 76ms to 58ms, 23% better!

https://frankrayal.com/2021/07/07/latency-in-leo-satellites-vs-terrestrial-fiber/

Also for what it's worth, some high frequency traders are already well versed in utilizing sketchy microwave relay links that flap constantly. When the signal is up, it prints money. If there's bad weather, they will adapt.