Applications of Satellite

Systems
There are several commercial applications of satellite
communications that have become widespread including: TV
Broadcast (DVB-S), very small aperture terminals (VSAT),
and global positioning systems (GPS). In the following we
discuss these in some details:

Very Small Aperture Terminals

(VSAT)
See (

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Very-small-aperture_terminal
http://searchmobilecomputing.techtarget.com/definition/VSAT
http://www.vsat-systems.com/

History of VSAT Systems

The first commercial VSATs were C band (6 GHz) receive-only systems that used spread
spectrum technology. More than 30,000 60 cm antenna systems were sold in the early
1980s. A C band (4/6 GHz) 2-way system was then developed using 1 m x 0.5 m
antennas and sold about 10,000 units in 1984-85. In 1985, Schlumberger Oilfield
Research co-developed the world's first Ku band (12–14 GHz) VSATs with Hughes
Aerospace to provide portable network connectivity for oil field drilling and exploration
units. Ku Band VSATs make up the vast majority of sites in use today for data or
telephony applications. The largest VSAT network (more than 12,000 sites) was
deployed by Spacenet and MCI for the US Postal Service.

VSAT is a satellite communication system that is described by the following:

• VSAT is used for bi-directional transferring digital data from/to small end-user terminals,
• The data is transferred via satellites to/from an Earth station that acts as a hub computer,
• VSAT uses GEO satellites,
• Bit rates range from 56 kbps to 4 Mbps.
• The terminals have small antennas that are less than 3 m in diameter, with most terminals
having antennas in the range of 0.75 m to 1.50 m.
• The access algorithm is TDMA with dynamically allocated bandwidth,
• VSAT is used for transmission of voice, video, and other types of data,
• If an end user needs to communicate with another end user, the transmission is done in
one of two configurations:
o Transmission is sent via the satellite from the initial end user to the hub station
first, which is then retransmitted via the satellite to the destination end user
forming a star network topology,
o Transmission is sent directly from the initial end user to the destination end user
forming a mesh network topology,
• Customers using VSAT include homer users who subscribe to Internet service with some
satellite Internet service provider.
• Customers using VSAT also include companies which require a large number of
terminals, where the company may lease their own satellite bandwidth.
• Advantage of VSAT over terrestrial communication systems such as DSL, microwave
links, …, include
o Companies leasing their own VSAT satellite channel have full control of their
communication system and independence of communication companies
providing terrestrial communication systems.
o Usually high bit rates can be achieved compared to terrestrial systems (several
Mbps for downlink to end users and several 100s of kbps for uplink from end
users)
• Some low data rate applications of VSAT systems are point-of-sale and automatic
teller machine (ATM) transactions,
• Some high data rate applications of VSAT systems are Internet service, video, and
voice transmissions,
• Other applications of VSAT systems also include mobile applications that use
phase array antennas such as Internet service on board of airplanes and ships,
• The structure of a VSAT terminal include the
following units:
o Parabolic Antenna: used for both
transmission and reception.
o Block Up-Converter (BUC): for
transmission to up-convert the frequency
to RF.
o Low-Noise Block down-converter
(LNB): for reception to down-convert the
received signal to IF frequency.
o Orthomode Transducer (OMT): is a waveguide component that allows the
same feed-horn and parabolic antenna to be used for transmission and
 reception. Note that the uplink and downlink transmissions are done at
orthogonal polarizations.
o Coaxial cables
o Indoor Unit (IDU): is basically a Modem with an Ethernet port and 2
coaxial cable connectors that connect it to the BUC for transmission and to
the LNB for reception.
The transmitted power of typical VSAT terminals is on the order of 1-2 W.

VSAT Access Algorithm

As mentioned above, VSAT terminals access satellites in a demand-based TDMA format where a
large number of terminals transmit to the satellite whenever they have some data to transmit. If a
terminal does not have data to transmit, it remains silent allowing other terminals to use the
allocated bandwidth for their own data. This is illustrated in the following figure:
 The above figure clearly indicates that the link (the satellite transponder) may not be used at full
capacity, where there may be periods in which no Earth station is transmitting anything. This is a
normal situation with demand access (DA) systems. In fact, having 100% usage of the
communication system in a DA system is generally not possible. Because Earth stations transmit
at basically random time instants, there is always the possibility of transmissions arriving at the
satellite at the same time causing what is know as a collision. In this case, the two colliding
transmissions would have to be retransmitted again at different time instants to avoid having them
collide again. To determine if a transmission was received correctly or if it collided with another
transmission, a confirmation would usually be transmitted for each successful transmission.