Russia Develops Algorithm To Increase Satellite Data Transmission Tenfold

Canopus-B satellite illustration Russia. (Wikimedia Commons / José Furtado)

JAKARTA - The Russian space agency developed an algorithm to increase satellite data transmission by ten times

A new data compression algorithm developed by Russian Space Systems (part of the state space company Roscosmos) will help increase satellite data transmission tenfold, Roscosmos announced on Wednesday.

"The technology developed by the Russian Space System will help increase the volume of data transmission by 1.2 - 10 times, without changing the design of the RSS (Earth remote sensing satellite)," the Russian space agency explained, citing TASS February 2.

Russian engineers will use a special adaptive mathematical algorithm to archive satellite transmission data directly in orbit, substantially reducing the size of the transmitted file, Roscosmos explained.

"This algorithm can be introduced to RSS space vehicles, including those that transmit large datasets to Earth, such as the Resurs and Kondor satellites," the press office quoted Alexander Mordvinov, head of the company's Digital/Analog Equipment Department as saying.

"Because the most promising results can be obtained from optical image compression technology which produces the largest amount of data transmitted and can be compressed without loss," he continued.

To note, at this time the performance characteristics can no longer be increased by conventional methods, because modern high-speed radio lines have actually reached the Shannon limit (the maximum level, at which data can be transmitted over a communication channel for a certain noise level), Roscosmos said.