Very-small-aperture terminal

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 typically range from 4 kbit/s up to 16 Mbit/s. VSATs access satellite(s) in
geosynchronous orbit to relay data from small remote earth stations (terminals) to other terminals (in
mesh topology) or master earth station "hubs" (in star topology).
VSATs are most commonly used to transmit narrowband data (point of sale transactions such as credit
card, polling or RFID data; or SCADA), 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 concept of the geostationary orbit was originated by Russian theorist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, who
wrote articles on space travel around the beginning of the 20th century. In the 1920s, Hermann Oberth and
Herman Potocnik, also known as Herman Noordung, described an orbit at an altitude of 35,900 kilometers
whose period exactly matched the Earth's rotational period, making it appear to hover over a fixed point
on the Earth's equator.[1]
Arthur C. Clarke contributed to the understanding of satellites through an article published in Wireless
World in October 1945 titled "Extra-Terrestrial Relays: Can Rocket Stations Give World-wide Radio
Coverage?". In this article, Clarke not only determines the orbital characteristics necessary for a
geostationary orbit, but also discusses the frequencies and power needed for communications.
Live satellite communication was developed in the sixties by NASA,[2] named Syncom 1-3. It transmitted
live coverage of the 1964 Olympics in Japan to viewers in the US and Europe. Soon after, on April 6,
1965, the first commercial satellite was launched into space, Intelsat I, nicknamed Early Bird. 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) 2 way system 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
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(1214 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.

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.

Future applications
Advances in technology have dramatically improved the price/performance equation of FSS (Fixed
Service Satellite) 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. These systems are applicable for providing various high-quality services because they
create efficient communication systems, both for residential and business users.

Constituent parts of a VSAT configuration

Antenna
Block up converter (BUC)

BUC: Block upconverter, Ku band

Top: Hughes 1W
Bottom: Feed horn with short section of waveguide, Andrew 2W BUC and Swedish microwave LNB

BUC: Block upconverter, Ku band

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 MHz frequency reference
to maintain the correct transmit frequency.
BUCs used in remote locations are often 2 or 4 W in the Ku band and 5 W in the C band. The 10 MHz
reference frequency is usually sent on the same feedline as the main carrier. Many smaller BUCs also get
their direct current (DC) over the feedline, using an internal DC block.
BUCs are generally used in conjunction with low-noise block converters (LNB). The BUC, being an upconverting device, makes up the "transmit" side of the system, while the LNB is the down-converting
device and makes up the "receive" side. An example of a system utilizing both a BUC and an LNB is a
VSAT system, used for bidirectional Internet access via satellite.
The block upconverter is a block shaped device assembled with the LNB in association with an OMT,
orthogonal mode transducer to the feed-horn that faces the reflector parabolic dish. This is opposed to
other types of frequency upconverter which may be rack mounted indoors or not co-located with the dish.
Low-noise block downconverter (LNB)
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, LNC (for low-noise converter), or even LND (for low-noise downconverter),[3] the device is
sometimes wrongly called an LNA (low-noise amplifier).
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.
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The LNB is usually suspended on one or more short booms, or feed arms, in front of the dish reflector,
at its focus (although some dish designs have the LNB on or behind the reflector). The microwave
signal from the dish is picked up by a feedhorn on the LNB and is fed to a section of waveguide. One
or more metal pins, or probes, protrude into the waveguide at right angles to the axis and act as
antennas, feeding the signal to a PCB inside the LNB's shielded box for processing. The lower
frequency IF output signal emerges from a socket on the box to which the coaxial cable connects.

LNBF disassembled (All Parts). The waveguide carrying the microwave radio signal collected by the
dish passes through the hole in the center. The pins visible at the top and left side of the hole project
into the waveguide and receive the signal, converting it to radio frequency alternating currents which
are processed by the circuit board.

Cross-section across a low-noise block down converter.

Viewing of the pin and the horn antenna in a low-noise block down converter.
The LNB gets its power from the receiver or set-top box inside the house. This phantom power is sent
"up" the same coaxial cable that carries the received signals "down" to the receiver, eliminating the
need for a separate power cable.
A corresponding component, called a block upconverter (BUC), is used at the satellite earth station
(uplink) dish to convert the band of television channels to the microwave uplink frequency.

 Orthomode transducer (OMT)

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.

Orthomode transducer, VSAT Ku band

Antenna side of OMT

Orthomode transducer, vertical and horizontal polarity

Orthomode transducer (Portenseigne, France)

Outdoor unit, includes feed horn, OMT, LNB and BUC

VSAT and Satellite Earth Station Applications

For 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 40dB 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 burnout by the power of the output signal generated by the block up converter (BUC). The BUC is also
connected to the feed horn through a wave guide port of the OMT junction device.
Orthomode transducers are used in dual-polarized Very small aperture terminals (VSATs), in sparsely
populated areas, radar antennas, radiometers, and communications links. They are usually connected to
the antenna's down converter or LNB and to the High Power Amplifier (HPA) attached to a transmitting
antenna.
Wherever there are two polarizations of radio signals (Horizontal and Vertical), the transmitted and
received radio signal to and from the antenna are said to be orthogonal. This means that the modulation
planes of the two radio signal waves are at 90 degrees angles to each other. The OMT device is used to
separate two equal frequency signals, of high and low signal power. Protective separation is essential as
the transmitter unit would seriously damage the very sensitive low (V) micro-voltage, front-end receiver
amplifier unit at the antenna.
The transmission signal of the up-link, of relatively high power (1, 2,or 5 watts for common VSAT
equipment) originating from BUC,(block up converter) and the very low power received signal power (volts) coming from the antenna (aerial) to the LNB receiver unit, in this case are at an angle of 90
relative to each other, are both coupled together at the feed-horn focal-point of the Parabolic antenna. The
device that unites both up-link and down-link paths, which are at 90 to each other, is known as an
Orthogonal Mode Transducer OMT.
In the VSAT Ku band of operation case, a typical OMT Orthomode Transducer provides a 40dB isolation
between each of the connected radio ports to the feed horn that faces the parabolic dish reflector (40dB
means that only 0.01% of the transmitter's output power is cross-fed into the receiver's wave guide port).
The port facing the parabolic reflector of the antenna is a circular polarizing port so that horizontal and
vertical polarity coupling of inbound and outbound radio signal is easily achieved.
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The 40dB isolation provides essential protection to the very sensitive receiver amplifier against burn out
from the relatively high-power signal of the transmitter unit. Further isolation may be obtained by means
of selective radio frequency filtering to achieve an isolation of 100dB (100dB means that only a 10 10
fraction of the transmitter's output power is cross-fed into the wave guide port of the receiver).
The second image demonstrates two types of outdoor units, a 1-watt Hughes unit and a composite
configuration of a 2-watt BUC/OMT/LNB Andrew, Swedish Microwave units.
The following images show a Portenseigne & Hirschmann Ku band configuration, that highlights the
horizontal the vertical, and circular polarized wave-guide ports that join to the Feed-horn, the LNB or
BUC elements of an outdoor unit.
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). The Astra2Connect has an all-in-one
OMT/BUC/LNA that looks like a QUAD LNB in shape and size which mounts on a regular TV sat
mount. As a consequence it is only 500 mW compared with the normal 2W, thus is poorer in rain.
Skylogic's Tooway system also uses an integrated OMT/BUC/LNB assembly named TRIA
(Transmit/Receive Integrated Assembly) which is 3W.

Maritime VSAT
Maritime VSAT is the use of satellite communication through a VSAT terminal on a ship at sea. Since a
ship at sea moves with the water, the antenna needs to be stabilized with reference to the horizon and True
North. The antenna is constantly pointing at the satellite it uses to transmit and receive signals.

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
their first stabilized antenna in 1978. Sea Tel dominates the supply of two-way VSAT stabilised antenna
systems to the marine market with almost 72 percent of the market in 2007 compared with Orbits 17.6
per cent.[4] Initially maritime VSAT was using Single Channel Per Carrier - SCPC 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 (TDMA) technology that dynamically allocated bandwidth to
each ship for shared bandwidth, lowering the entry level cost for getting maritime VSAT installed, which
turned out to be of key importance to small-to mid-sized fleets, and thus to the market acceptance of
VSAT.

Market
According to the Maritime VSAT report [5] issued by the Comsys Group their research shows that
stabilised maritime VSAT services (not including oil & gas rigs) reached more than $400 million in 2007.
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In 2010 the COMSYS group released the "2nd Maritime VSAT Report" where the market estimate had
increased to $590 million in 2009 with predictions for 2010 at $850 m. The estimated size of the market
in terms of vessels eligible to get VSAT was in this report set to in excess of 42.000 with just over 34.000
to go. The major companies market share in terms of number of vessels in service were in 2009 (2007 in
parenthesis) according to these reports: Vizada: 17,6% (26.0%), Ship Equip: 11.0% (10.7%), Cap Rock
2.8% (2.9%), MTN 7.5% (6.4%), Stratos - % (3.6%), KVH 5.4% (- %) Elektrikom 4.9% (3.2%), Intelsat
3.4% (- %), Eutelsat 3.1%, NSSL 3.1%, Radio Holland 3.0%, Telemar 3.0%, DTS 2.6% and others
accounted for 32.6% (27.7%). Many of the major providers have branded their maritime VSAT offering
such that Vizada offers its service through the Marlink division and the SeaLink and WaveCall products,
OmniAccess through their BroadBEAM[6] products and Ship Equip calls its offering Sevsat.