A great financial savings in a new COMSAT Wideband Steaming L-Band (WiSL®) solution has been announced that will enable the government to achieve significant cost savings by reusing existing installed SATCOM equipment, while tripling or quadrupling the throughput and capabilities of the original Inmarsat SwiftBroadband (SB) and FleetBroadband (FB) systems.

COMSAT has successfully tested and deployed its COMSAT Wideband Steaming L-Band (WiSL®) solution across various U.S. Government aeronautical and maritime platforms. 

The WiSL solution utilizes Inmarsat’s reliable, worldwide L-band space and ground network and augments existing SB or FB terminals, allowing return datalinks up to 2.8 Mbps. It enhances the original functionality of the terminals, as it provides a dedicated high data rate communications link from a vehicle, maritime vessel or fixed-wing aircraft, fitted with an Inmarsat type-approved high-gain L-band terminal and antenna, as small as 10x10 inches and as light as 4.3 pounds, for each platform. 

The WiSL capability is enhanced with a COMSAT modem that injects a single channel per carrier (SCPC) signal through a high-gain antenna. The high throughput is achieved over a dedicated satellite service and remote management and allows the user to monitor and control satellite access. Operational beams can be built as clusters of narrow beams or custom-shaped beams. The system uses commonly available commercial equipment and provides global deployment capabilities across the existing Inmarsat constellation. 

WiSL is a unique solution that meets high-demand ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance) needs for higher throughputs from smaller form factor antennas.