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OCENS Mail vs Stratosnet

There are several reasons why OCENS.Mail is superior to StratosNet. Here they are:

1) Duplex operation. OCENS.Mail sends and receives e-mail and the same time maximizing the satellite bandwidth utilization. StratosNet is simplex by nature. When using StratosNet with any e-mail client, the e-mail client will first receive all its email and when done send the pending messages. This simplex mode operation will double the time required to receive e-mail when compared to OCENS.Mail. OCENS.Mail sends and receives all e-mails concurrently.

2) Mid-transmission restarts. OCENS.Mail restarts a transmission exactly where it left off. This is not the case with StratosNet and Outlook Express. With StratosNet if you are downloading 35 e-mails and the satellite link is dropped in the middle of the transmission you will have to download all 35 messages again on reconnection. This is not the case with OCENS.Mail. With OCENS.Mail only the data that is left to transmit is received on a reconnect. This mid-file restart saves considerable air time given the nature of satellite communications and the frequent satellite drops.

3) Header pruning. The OCENS.Mail server prunes mail headers down to the minimum required size before transmission to the vessel. This saves about 1Kb per e-mail mesg.

4) Block compression. StratosNet uses RLE encoding on all transmissions. OCENS.Mail uses block compression. Block compression is much more efficient than RLE compression because it knows the size of the whole data set and can optimize the algorithms. RLE by its very nature does not know when the data set starts and ends. It can not, therefore, provide optimum compression.

5) Server side mail filtering. The OCENS.Mail server analyzes every e-mail that comes into the system before it sends it to the vessel. Each e-mail is filtered for spam, viruses, and a user defined filter. The user defined filter by default will quarantined mail mesgs larger than 50Kb on the server. Users can retrieve quarantined e-mails either with a specific request or via webmail once on shore. Optional HTML filtering and address specific address filtering can be added by the user using the webmail interface to OCENS.Mail. This allows users to customize the delivery of e-mails to meet their criteria saving considerable amounts of air time.

6) Mail client security. OCENS.Mail comes configured for use with its own e-mail client called iScribe. iScribe is immune to the viruses that plague Outlook Express which is the client supported by StratosNet. Although OCENS.Mail will work with any e-mail client that supports POP/SMTP like Outlook and Outlook Express we recommend the use of iScribe. There is nothing uglier than an infected outlook express program trying to send 60,000 e-mails through a satellite link.

7) Dialer. OCENS.Mail implements its own dialer which is independent of the Windows Internet Explorer based settings which is used by Outlook Express and StratosNet. It is very easy to break StratosNet's configured Outlook Express by changing the internet dialing options in Internet Explorer or any other application which uses and modifies Windows Internet dialing rules. OCENS.Mail, on the other hand, uses its own custom dialer which is separate and immune to changes made to the Internet Explorers dialing rules.

8) Protocol overhead reductions. OCENS.Mails protocol is specifically designed for the long latencies found in Satellite communication. The protocol used by StratosNet was developed by venturi.com for transmission over ground based cell networks. As such StratosNet does a very poor job handling the long delays found in Satellite communication. This results in a dramatic performance hit when transmitting many small e-mails. OCENS.Mail on the other hand has designed a protocol which will log the user in, send and receive all e-mails, and disconnect with only 3 line turn arounds. This is important because line turn arounds are extremely time consuming over satellite networks.

9) The OCENS.Mail server is a full blown internet mail server which can be access over the internet as well as over a satellite connection. All standard protocols such as IMAP, POP, SMTP, and Webmail are supported in addition to the satellite optimized protocol used by OCENS.Mail. OCENS.Mail works over any Internet based connection. This is not the case for StratosNet. Users can use OCENS.Mail over a cellular network or a satellite network with little or no configuration changes. StratosNet can not do this.

10) StratosNet uses venturi which is a product they purchase. As such they do not have access to resources required to modify, customize, or improve the product for Satellite communication. OCENS.Mail on the other hand is owned and maintained by GMN. GMN can modify the source code to account for changes in satellite connectivity. By having access to the source code to both the client and the server GMN and OCENS have full control over the functioning, maintenance, and support of the products. This is not the case for StratosNet.

11) Air time. Although OCENS does sell air time to customers who want to purchase it from them it is not its main core business. Unlike Stratos, OCENS main core business is to deliver data services to customers in the most time efficient manner. It is therefore in OCENS best interest to get data to its customers a quickly as possible. This is not the case for Stratos. Stratos core business is selling air time. As such there is a conflict of interest with their StratosNet e-mail product. It is not to Stratos best advantage to deliver a highly optimized product to its customers. Stratos offers e-mail for free to its customers to encourage them to use *** MORE *** air time. This is a marketing strategy that is easy to see through.
12) OCENS.Mail saves air time and money over StratosNet. OCENS.Mail is so much more efficient than StratosNet that Stratos customers purchasing the product save considerably more money than using free StratosNet. At a $1.19 per minute for MSAT air time it does not take long to pay for the approximate $20 per month OCENS.Mail subscription.

13) Additional Enterprise services. OCENS.Mail provides, compression based web browsing, crewed accounts, multi-user access, local network support, and file transfer options. StratosNet does not provide any services other than single user mail accounts.

14) Additional consideration for large-group users (example - cruise ships):

a) StratosNet 2.0 uses Venturi (www.venturiwireless.com) as the main compression engine. This is the same engine that verizon wireless uses for their wireless cell phone network. The technology has very good 'on the fly' compression. It does not work well over Msat or Iridium, however, because of the long latencies in the line turn around. So although StratosNet is free we still have many customers coming over to us because we can save them considerable amount of airtime when using sat services with slow turnaround. There is more to making satellite connections go fast than just compression. Protocol simplification and latency removal are just as important (if not more so) to making fast sat links.

b) StratosNet does not have a network based client side solution like we have. All e-mail accounts are on the server which is shore based. Our solution is distributed. i.e. some components on the ship some on shore. With Stratos you can't have local e-mail delivery on a ship unless you install a mail server. If you install a mail server then there is no seamless integration with the StratosNet mail server on shore. With OCENS Mail Enterprise you have a local mail server on the ship which will handle local delivery and webmail. OCENS Mail Enterprise collects all outgoing e-mails and then optimizes the sending and receiving for the whole ship in one connection.

c) There is now way to create sub accounts on the fly. StratosNet customers must register on the web site to get an e-mail account. It usually takes about 24 hours to activate an e-mail account. Stratos is not setup to deal with dynamic accounts that change day to day.

d) On the sat link stratosnet depends on webmail or standard e-mail clients to do the transfers. There is no mid file restart in the case of failed connections and there is no duplex operation of the channel since outlook express (the e-mail client of preference for stratosnet) does not support duplex operation.

e) OCENS Mail Enterprise supplies a fully blown web server on the ship for local webmail access and other web based services. Stratos has no such thing.

f) MSAT, Iridium and other satcomm connections through Stratosnet are slow. It takes about 45 seconds to negotiate the modem hand shake. The Stratos modem bank is a long way from Arizona and the quality and latency of the PSTN affects performance. Our Async modem bank is right next to the Iridium gateway which allows our Async solution to connect in 1/2 the time with much better performance.

g) OCENS and GMN develops and owns their own software which allows us to quickly adapt a solution to our customer's needs. Stratos purchases its solution from Venturi which limits their flexibility when designing solutions for customers.

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