Multi-orbit connectivity layer
Built into your satellite link, not bolted on top of a cloud login.
Full Ahead integrates with modern maritime connectivity — Starlink and other LEO constellations, managed multi-orbit LEO+GEO services and legacy VSAT — measuring the link the ship actually has and sizing every sync to it. Traffic-weighted across the major shipping lanes that is 99.6% coverage, and the offline outbox covers the rest.
Connectivity treated as a variable, not an assumption
Link-aware, not link-dependent
The app probes the real round trip and throughput on board — Starlink LEO, OneWeb, a managed multi-orbit LEO+GEO service, Ku/Ka VSAT or L-band — and picks a sync policy for that link instead of assuming a shore-grade connection.
Graceful degradation, in that order
Broadband syncs everything. LEO batches media. GEO trades round trips for larger bundles. On metered L-band only compliance-critical deltas — job closures, defects, certificates — leave the ship.
Outages are covered, not survived
Rain fade, antenna blockage alongside, jamming zones and polar gaps are ordinary events. The offline outbox holds every action with its original timestamp and drains automatically on the next link of any kind.
Supported links and what the platform does on each
| Service | Orbit | Typical link | Sync behaviour |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starlink Maritime (LEO) | LEO | 100 Mbps · 45 ms | Broadband — full sync. High throughput, low latency. Full sync including evidence photographs and telemetry streaming in near real time. |
| OneWeb / Eutelsat (LEO) | LEO | 40 Mbps · 80 ms | LEO — full sync, batched media. Strong polar and high-latitude coverage where GEO look angles fail. Full sync with attachments batched. |
| Multi-orbit LEO + GEO (managed service) | Multi-orbit | 60 Mbps · 120 ms | LEO — full sync, batched media. Auto-failover between orbits. Full Ahead re-measures on every switchover instead of assuming a fixed profile. |
| Ku/Ka-band VSAT (GEO) | GEO | 6 Mbps · 620 ms | GEO VSAT — latency-tolerant batching. Latency-bound, not bandwidth-bound. Requests are batched to survive 600 ms+ round trips and rain fade. |
| Iridium Certus / Inmarsat FleetBroadband (L-band) | MEO | 0.7 Mbps · 900 ms | L-band narrowband — compliance first. Metered fallback. Only compliance-critical deltas move; attachments hold in the outbox until a cheaper link appears. |
| Port Wi-Fi / crew LTE | Terrestrial | 25 Mbps · 60 ms | Broadband — full sync. Opportunistic. The outbox drains fully, including deferred attachments, the moment it is detected. |
Throughput and latency figures are indicative planning values for a typical maritime terminal; confirm actual performance with your connectivity provider.
Coverage across the major shipping lanes
Modelled availability for a multi-orbit fit, weighted by lane traffic to 99.6%. Where coverage thins — polar legs, yards, canal transits, interference zones — the ship keeps working offline and uploads on reconnect.
Asia – Europe (Malacca, Suez, Med)
99.8%LEO primary, GEO backup — Dense LEO plus overlapping GEO beams; canal transits fall back to crew LTE.
Transpacific (Asia – US West Coast)
99.7%LEO primary, GEO backup — Mid-ocean LEO cells with GEO fill; great-circle high-latitude legs stay on LEO.
Transatlantic (Europe – North America)
99.9%LEO + GEO — Heaviest overlap of any lane; effectively continuous broadband.
Middle East Gulf – Asia (crude and product)
99.7%LEO + GEO — Interference and jamming zones drop to L-band; compliance deltas still move.
South America – Europe / Asia (bulk)
99.5%LEO + GEO — South Atlantic thin spots ride GEO at higher latency with batched sync.
Australia / West Africa bulk routes
99.4%LEO + GEO — Rain fade on Ka-band handled by orbit failover, then latency-tolerant batching.
Arctic and high-latitude (>70°)
98.2%LEO only (GEO look angle fails) — Polar LEO constellations only; outbox covers the residual outage entirely.
Coastal, canal, anchorage and yard periods
99%Terrestrial LTE / port Wi-Fi, LEO — Antenna blockage alongside and in yards is the classic outage — the app runs offline throughout.
Satellite connectivity questions
Does Full Ahead require Starlink or a specific satellite provider?
No. It is provider-neutral and works over whatever link the vessel already has — Starlink Maritime, OneWeb, a managed multi-orbit LEO+GEO service, traditional Ku or Ka-band VSAT, L-band fallback, port Wi-Fi or crew LTE. The platform measures the link and adapts rather than requiring a minimum bandwidth.
How do you reach 99.5% coverage of major shipping lanes?
A multi-orbit fit — LEO for latency and high latitudes, GEO for fill and redundancy — models out at roughly 99.5% traffic-weighted availability across the principal trade lanes. The residual percent is antenna blockage in yards and canals, deep polar legs and outage windows, all of which the offline-first application covers so work continues regardless.
What happens during a multi-orbit failover?
The link is re-measured on reconnection and the sync policy is recalculated, so a switch from LEO to GEO immediately becomes latency-tolerant batching instead of a wall of failed requests. In-flight actions stay queued and are retried in order.
Will the software eat our satellite data allowance?
Sync moves record deltas — kilobytes per job, movement or requisition. Photographs and evidence files are compressed on LEO and deferred entirely on metered narrowband until a cheaper link appears, so the expensive traffic is the traffic you choose.
Do we need a server on board?
No. There is no vessel-side server or replication window. The application itself runs offline on the laptops and tablets already on board, and the connectivity layer decides when and how much to send.
Related reading: offline ship management software, crew welfare and connectivity and the open API.
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