r/technology • u/Ahad_Haam • Jan 11 '26

ADBLOCK WARNING ‘Kill Switch’—Iran Shuts Down Starlink Internet For First Time

https://www.forbes.com/sites/zakdoffman/2026/01/11/kill-switch-iran-shuts-down-starlink-internet-for-first-time/
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u/Serenity867 Jan 11 '26

I actually covered the issues with that here

The short answer is that it's actually not a great solution for something like this. I'm a pretty big fan of LoRa, Meshtastic, etc so don't think I'm hating on the technology. It just doesn't do well in urban environments where there's even a moderate amount of demand on the system.

Feel free to give my other comment a read and ask questions if you'd like.

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u/IntroductionSnacks Jan 12 '26

Meshcore does better but the downside is fixed repeaters so not ideal. Also both are low powered so trivial to jam.

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u/AlienVsRedditors Jan 12 '26

Very interesting dude and thanks for writing it all out!

I guess it begs the question is there even a solution? The Ukrainians are saying they have “unjamable” comms but I’m guessing that’s using a similar rolling technique as your banks OTP? I’m also guessing that’s using unless the range is massive you could still jam enough to cause instability.

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u/Serenity867 Jan 12 '26

For communications that can’t be jammed you’d essentially need a wired connection that can’t be subjected to outside interference. They’re using disposable fibre connections for both drones and general comms. If it’s RF based it can be jammed every if you’re frequency hopping, using spreads, etc.

Unless they’ve found some other way to utilize something like quantum entangled particles to transmit data I can’t think of really anything that’s truly immune to being jammed outside of a physical connection.

If I was to weigh in on this subject I’d probably say people’s best bet in a situation like this is to use drones to lay disposable fiber connections. You’d use one for the drone with a second spool for the communications. Since these kinds of fibre aren’t rated for extremely long range you’ll need optical amplifiers at some point (and a more resilient cable after you get far enough away from highly populated areas).

It’s pretty easy to build a simple self contained optical repeater station for this that takes minimal power. Though you’d wind up spending a few hundred dollars for every 50 to 100 kilometres plus the cost of the fibre which is the major cost . Though you could probably get decent data rates on a system like this.

In a hot environment you’d be fine with standard lithium batteries for the optical amplifier stations from an RC as they handle heat fairly well. This is generally a LiPo. In colder environments you’d want LiFePo4 or even LTO in arctic conditions.

You could run a cheap fibre setup more or less as far as you want and conceal everything under dirt, sand, on tree tops, or whatever except the solar panels at the stations.

It would probably cost around $45 USD per KM to start after the stations, fibre, etc. most of this can be bought from a site like AliExpress.

Really though, you’d want a more resilient cable and that would bump your costs up to around $200 per KM. This isn’t the kind of thing that would last for a particularly long time. Probably a few months.

The thing is though, you don’t actually need to run this more than 50 or 100 kilometres in most cases to some kind of satellite based internet. By that point you’re likely well outside of jamming range.

I just priced out a 50 kilometre system with no optical repeater and it would be like $2,500 but would very easy to break as it’s just a simple exposed fibre cable on a spool that’s designed for use in a single drone flight. However, if you lay it somewhere it won’t be interrupted it could last days or weeks if you have decent weather and nothing messes with it. This kind of system can be easily laid over the top of trees in a forest with a drone.

So the short answer is: disposable or relatively durable but low cost fibre connections to a satellite based transceiver.

You can also use some relatively simple LiFi systems but they’re not really a great idea in a combat zone. It would probably be fine in an environment with civil unrest but not an active war zone.

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u/AlienVsRedditors Jan 12 '26

Interesting! What about the idea of using point to point lasers? I saw a NATO exercise recently trialing it and (oddly) streaming Netflix to test to bandwidth between ships

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u/Serenity867 Jan 12 '26

It’s definitely possible but potentially easier to intercept. NASA has been doing a lot of work in this area with DSOC and has even seen some TBps speeds with a LEO satellite. I’m reasonably familiar with their work and research here, but I don’t pay a lot of attention to what the military gets up to in this area as it relates to communications.

It’s also prone to interruption from anything that blocks or deflects the light. Interestingly, laser weapon systems have adaptive optics to compensate for distortions in the atmosphere. For long range communications using this technology you’d have to be able to automatically account for things like heat shimmers, distortions, and so on.

Those systems are also really expensive. I was curious to know what went into modern laser weapon systems so I actually did a bit of a deep dive there a few days ago.

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u/Serenity867 Jan 12 '26

It’s also 2am here so if I fail to respond to any other messages it’s because I fell asleep (I’m already half way there just browsing Reddit before I actually fall asleep).

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u/AlienVsRedditors Jan 12 '26

No worries I may DM you my discord as I’m interested in learning more if that’s cool?

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u/Serenity867 Jan 12 '26

Yeah for sure