Development of the Wideband InterNetworking Satellite WINDS (KIZUNA)

Abstract

The WINDS (Wideband InterNetworking engineering test and Demonstration Satellite, also called KIZUNA) is a stationary satellite developed for the technological development and demonstration of an ultrahigh-data-rate satellite communications system using the Ka band that has high affinity to the Internet. It enables ultrahigh-data-rate communications experiments all over Japan as well as in the Asia-Pacific region. The effectiveness of the satellite has already been demonstrated by many communications experiments conducted over the three years since the launch, and more experiments are planned for the future. This paper introduces an outline of the WINDS project and discusses the results of the main experiments so far.