+1 to Gene, I have shared the exact same confusion on this thread.

For satellites moving so fast (horizon to horizon in ~90sec), any network 
functions above L2 (e.g. routing, caching, etc) feel like they’d spend all 
their time churning. Keeping the satellites as bent-pipe repeaters between a 
dishy and a ground station effectively hides their orbital mobility from all 
other layers in the network and allows for stability in other layers.

Now, caching *at* the dishy, on the other hand… sounds like a great idea! 
Caching at the ground station as well, though that doesn’t get you any gains in 
terms of minimizing satellite network bandwidth.

Spencer

> On Apr 20, 2023, at 14:34, Eugene Chang via Starlink 
> <[email protected]> wrote:
> 
> Friends,
> As I follow the discussion of putting computers on satellite, I can 
> understand the attraction if I apply the discussion with a satellite and 
> server above my location, suspended by a skyhook. The geometry is very easy 
> (some variations of a triangle). However, with an LEO satellite (or MEO), 
> most of the time the server is not overhead, it is hidden by the horizon. 
> 
> Have I missed comments (or naively not understood comments) about how the 
> solutions work when the server is not overhead? I wanted to hear about data 
> locality and how the desired behavior varies according to the position of the 
> server. Does some of the proposed edge computing imply (or assume) the data 
> is needed on many satellites so that there is always a server overhead with 
> the needed data? (Then we have lots of data synchronization challenges.) 
> Clearly, this suggests there is a scaling problem for edge computing 
> solutions because for a single server, most of the time the computer is not 
> at the edge near me.
> 
> What am I missing?
> 
> Gene
> -----------------------------------
> Eugene Chang
> [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
> +1-781-799-0233 (in Honolulu)
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
>> On Apr 20, 2023, at 2:24 AM, David Fernández via Starlink 
>> <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>> 
>> wrote:
>> 
>> Well, O3b MPower (MEO satellites) is offering independent one hop
>> dedicated access to the (Microsoft Azure) cloud as "killer
>> application". If the cloud is on the satellite, half-hop.
>> 
>> Starlink GWs are near Google Cloud datacenters.
>> 
>> Blue Origin is on the mission to move Amazon Cloud to orbit,
>> eventually, maybe, leaving the Earth as a garden to enjoy, without any
>> industry on the surface (in a century, maybe). Kuiper will offer one
>> hop access to Amazon Cloud, then half-hop.
>> 
>> What seems a crazy idea today will be eventually implemented later,
>> like Starlink (Teledesic failed, fingers crossed Starlink does not go
>> bankrupt, although I would expect it be saved by Department of
>> Defense, as Iridium was saved).
>> 
>> As we were discussing recently, maybe starting with anycast DNS
>> servers on satellites is a first step to consider, before embarking
>> any other type of cloud servers.
>> 
>> Regards,
>> 
>> David
>> 
>>> Date: Thu, 20 Apr 2023 04:33:00 +0000
>>> From: Ulrich Speidel <[email protected] 
>>> <mailto:[email protected]>>
>>> To: "[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>" <[email protected] 
>>> <mailto:[email protected]>>, 'Michael Richardson'
>>>     <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>>, 'starlink' 
>>> <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>>,
>>>     "[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>" <[email protected] 
>>> <mailto:[email protected]>>
>>> Subject: Re: [Starlink] DataCenters in Space (was Re:  fiber IXPs in
>>>     space)
>>> Message-ID:
>>>     
>>> <sy4pr01mb697983bb5deb1b2aa0b2690bce...@sy4pr01mb6979.ausprd01.prod.outlook.com
>>>  
>>> <mailto:sy4pr01mb697983bb5deb1b2aa0b2690bce...@sy4pr01mb6979.ausprd01.prod.outlook.com>>
>>>     
>>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="windows-1252"
>>> 
>>> Where do I even start? The lack of substantial bandwidth between space and
>>> ground? The extra latency between ground and space compared to terrestrial
>>> cloud, especially as terrestrial cloud edge can move much closer to
>>> customers when space can't? The fact that every LEO satellite is both a few
>>> 100 km from every customer and out of the customer's range depending on when
>>> you look? That low temperatures in space don't mean superconductive chips
>>> that produce zero heat, and that that heat is difficult to get rid of in
>>> space? That generating power in space is orders of magnitude more expensive
>>> than on the ground?
>>> 
>>> Just because Starlink can provide a service somewhere between DSL and low to
>>> medium grade fibre to a few million around the globe it's not "done". Even
>>> with 10x the number of satellites and a couple of times the current capacity
>>> per satellite, Starlink isn't going to supply more than a couple of 100
>>> million at best, and that's not even accounting for growth in demand from
>>> IOT...
>>> 
>>> --
>>> 
>>> ****************************************************************
>>> Dr. Ulrich Speidel
>>> 
>>> School of Computer Science
>>> 
>>> Room 303S.594 (City Campus)
>>> Ph: (+64-9)-373-7599 ext. 85282
>>> 
>>> The University of Auckland
>>> [email protected] 
>>> <mailto:[email protected]><mailto:[email protected]>
>>> http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~ulrich/
>>> ****************************************************************
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