TRW Awarded Contract to Provide Digital Payloads for Astrolink Broadband Space Communications System.REDONDO BEACH Redondo Beach (rĭdŏn`dō), city (1990 pop. 60,167), Los Angeles co., S Calif., on the Pacific Ocean; inc. 1892. Once a commercial port for Los Angeles, it is a residential and resort city with a protected harbor and an excellent marina. , Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 22, 1999-- TRW TRW The Real World (TV reality show) TRW The Right Way TRW Tactical Reconnaissance Wing TRW The Retriever Weekly (University of Maryland, Baltimore, MD) TRW Thompson Ramo Wooldridge Inc has received a contract to supply advanced digital satellite payloads for Astrolink LLC (Logical Link Control) See "LANs" under data link protocol. LLC - Logical Link Control , a $3.6 billion satellite system that will deliver global, on-demand wireless broadband High-speed wireless transmission of data. What is "high" speed is always a changing number. Wireless systems are typically slower than land-based, wireline networks. In the past, wireless broadband started at 250 Kbps, whereas land-based broadband was generally considered to start at T1 telecommunications. The payload (1) Refers to the "actual data" in a packet or file minus all headers attached for transport and minus all descriptive meta-data. In a network packet, headers are appended to the payload for transport and then discarded at their destination. contract is part of an agreement announced July 21, 1999 under which TRW, Lockheed Martin For the former company, see . Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) is a leading multinational aerospace manufacturer and advanced technology company formed in 1995 by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta. and Telespazio committed a total $900 million of equity to Astrolink LLC, the international joint venture that will construct the Astrolink system and deliver its services. The contract calls for TRW to design, build and provide engineering services for four satellite payloads, which TRW will supply to Lockheed Martin Commercial Space Systems. The payloads consist of advanced electronics equipment, including antennas, digital processors and routers -- in short, all the hardware and software necessary to operate high-data-rate networks from space. "This agreement is a key element of TRW's strategy to apply our advanced payload designs to the emerging, commercial broadband satellite communications market," said Timothy W. Hannemann, executive VP and general manager of the TRW Space & Electronics Group. "This new market opportunity is projected to represent approximately $300 million annually in sales for TRW over the next several years and continued sales growth thereafter. "TRW developed the digital switching payloads for Milstar, the first operational `bandwidth-on-demand' satellite system," Hannemann added. "Our experience will help ensure that Astrolink is first to market with satellite-switched broadband services. Bandwidth-on-demand means that Astrolink customers will receive, and pay for, only the communications capacity they use rather than leasing a costly dedicated circuit." Astrolink will offer a comprehensive family of interactive multimedia services. The system will enable large multinational corporations
The system's high-bandwidth services will address rapidly growing applications such as network access, e-commerce, high-data-rate file transfer, and collaborative work such as videoconferencing A real time video session between two or more users or between two or more locations. Although the first videoconferencing was done with traditional analog TV and satellites, inhouse room systems became popular in the early 1980s after Compression Labs pioneered digitized video systems and CAD/CAM CAD/CAM in full computer-aided design/computer-aided manufacturing. Integration of design and manufacturing into a system under direct control of digital computers. . "TRW has invested significantly in developing the Astrolink payload design. This contract demonstrates the vitality of our aerospace innovation and puts our production plans into high gear," Hannemann said. "With the projected growth of broadband satellite services, TRW's digital payloads business will provide as many as 1,000 jobs in coming years." TRW provides advanced technology products and services for the global automotive, aerospace and information systems markets. The company's 1998 sales totaled approximately $12 billion. TRW news releases are available on the company's Web site: www.trw.com. |
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