Very-Small-Aperture Terminal

A 2.5 m parabolic dish antenna for bidirectional satellite Internet access

A very small aperture terminal (VSAT) is a two-way satellite ground station or a stabilized maritime
VSAT antenna with a dish antenna that is smaller than 3 meters. The majority of VSAT antennas range from 75 cm
to 1.2 m. Data rates range from 4 kbit/s up to 4 Mbit/s; some upgraded modules can even reach a max downlink of
up to 16 Mbit/s. VSATs access satellites in geosynchronous orbit to relay data from small remote earth stations
(terminals) to other terminals (in meshtopology) or master earth station "hubs" (in star topology).
VSATs are used to transmit narrowband data (e.g., point-of-sale transactions using credit cards, polling
or RFID data, orSCADA), or broadband data (for the provision of satellite Internet access to remote
locations, VoIP or video). VSATs are also used for transportable, on-the-move (utilising phased array antennas) or
mobile maritime communications.
History
The first commercial VSATs were C band (6 GHz) receive-only systems by Equatorial Communications
using spread spectrum technology. More than 30,000 60 cm antenna systems were sold in the early 1980s.
Equatorial later developed a C band (4/6 GHz) two-way system using 1 m x 0.5 m antennas and sold about 10,000
units in 198485.
In 1985, Schlumberger Oilfield Research co-developed the world's first Ku band (1214 GHz) VSATs with Hughes
Communications to provide network connectivity for oil field drilling and exploration units. Hughes
Communications went on to develop Ku band VSATs for enterprise customers such as WalMart, Holiday Inn,
Chrysler, and General Motors. These enterprise terminals made up the vast majority of sites for the next 20 years for
two-way data or telephony applications.
A large VSAT network, with more than 12,000 sites, was deployed by Spacenet and MCI for the U.S. Postal
Service in the 1980s. Today, the largest VSAT Ku band network containing over 100,000 VSATs was deployed by
and is operated by Hughes Communications for lottery applications.

In 2007, Hughes Communications started deploying Ka band VSAT sites for consumers under its HughesNet brand
on the Spaceway 3 satellite and later in 2012 on its EchoStar XXVII/Jupiter 1 satellite. By September 2014, Hughes
became the first Satellite Internet Provider to surpass one million active terminals. [4]
Configurations
Most VSAT networks are configured in one of these topologies:

A star topology, using a central uplink site, such as a network operations center (NOC), to transport data
back and forth to each VSAT terminal via satellite,

A mesh topology, where each VSAT terminal relays data via satellite to another terminal by acting as a hub,
minimizing the need for a centralized uplink site,

A combination of both star and mesh topologies. Some VSAT networks are configured by having several
centralized uplink sites (and VSAT terminals stemming from it) connected in a multi-star topology with
each star (and each terminal in each star) connected to each other in a mesh topology. Others configured in
only a single-star topology sometimes will have each terminal connected to each other as well, resulting in
each terminal acting as a central hub. These configurations are utilized to minimize the overall cost of the
network, and to alleviate the amount of data that has to be relayed through a central uplink site (or sites) of
a star or multi-star network.

Constituent parts of a VSAT configuration

Antenna

Block upconverter (BUC)

Low-noise block downconverter (LNB)

Orthomode transducer (OMT)

Interfacility link cable (IFL)

Indoor unit (IDU)

All the outdoor parts on the dish are collectively called the ODU (Outdoor Unit), i.e., OMT to split signal between
BUC and LNB. The IDU is effectively a modem, usually with ethernet port and 2 x F-connectors for the coax to
BUC (Transmit) and from LNB (Receive)..

Block diagram of VSAT

Orthomode Transducer

An orthomode transducer (OMT) is a waveguide component. It is commonly referred to as a polarisation

duplexer. Orthomode transducers serve either to combine or to separate two orthogonally polarized microwave
signal paths.[1] One of the paths forms the uplink, which is transmitted over the same waveguide as the received
signal path, or downlink path. Such a device may be part of a VSAT antenna feed or a terrestrial microwave

radio feed; for example, OMTs are often used with a feed horn to isolate orthogonal polarizations of a signal and to
transfer transmit and receive signals to different ports.[2]
VSAT modems the transmission and reception paths are at 90 to each other, or in other words, the signals are
orthogonally polarized with respect to each other. This orthogonal shift between the two signal paths provides
approximately an isolation of 40 dB in the Ku band and Ka band radio frequency bands.
Hence this device serves in an essential role as the junction element of the outdoor, unit (ODU) of a VSAT modem.
It protects the receiver front-end element (the low-noise block converter, LNB) from burn-out by the power of the
output signal generated by theblock up converter (BUC). The BUC is also connected to the feed horn through a
wave guide port of the OMT junction device.

Low Noise Block Downconverter

A low-noise block downconverter (or LNB) is the receiving device mounted on satellite dishes used for satellite
TV reception, which collects the radio waves from the dish. Also called a low-noise block,[1][2] LNC (for low-noise
converter), or even LND (for low-noise downconverter)
The LNB is a combination of low-noise amplifier, frequency mixer, local oscillator and IF amplifier. It receives
the microwave signal from the satellite collected by the dish, amplifies it, and downconverts the block of frequencies
to a lower block of intermediate frequencies (IF). This downconversion allows the signal to be carried to the indoor
satellite TV receiver using relatively cheap coaxial cable; if the signal remained at its original microwave frequency
it would require an expensive and impractical waveguide line.

Block Upconverter

A block upconverter (BUC) is used in the transmission (uplink) of satellite signals. It converts a band
of frequencies from a lower frequency to a higher frequency. Modern BUCs convert from the L band to Ku band, C
band and Ka band. Older BUCs convert from a 70 MHz intermediate frequency (IF) to Ku band or C band.
Most BUCs use phase-locked loop local oscillators and require an external 10 MHzfrequency reference to maintain
the correct transmit frequency.
Technology
Initially, the use of VSAT antennas at sea was for transmission of television signals. One of the first companies to
manufacture stabilized VSAT antennas was SeaTel of Concord, California, which launched its first stabilized
antenna in 1978. SeaTel dominates the supply of two-way VSAT stabilised antenna systems to the marine
industry Initially, maritime VSAT was using single channel per carrier technology, which suited large-volume users
like oil drilling rigs and oil platforms and large fleets of ships from one shipowner sailing within one or few satellite
footprints. This changed when the company iDirect launched its IP-based time division multiple access technology
Time division multiple access (TDMA) is a channel access method for shared medium networks. It allows several
users to share the same frequency channel by dividing the signal into different time slots. The users transmit in rapid
succession, one after the other, each using its own time slot. This allows multiple stations to share the same
transmission medium (e.g. radio frequency channel) while using only a part of its channel capacity
.
Future applications
Advances in technology have dramatically improved the priceperformance ratio of fixed satellite service (FSS)
over the past five years. New VSAT systems are coming online using Ka band technology that promise higher data
rates for lower costs.

FSS systems currently in orbit have a huge capacity with a relatively low price structure. FSS systems provide
various applications for subscribers, including: telephony,fax, television, high-speed data communication services,
Internet access, satellite news gathering (SNG), Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) and others.