What does VSAT stand for?
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VSAT stands for Very Small Aperture Terminal. |
What is a VSAT ?
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A VSAT is a small-sized telecommunications earth station that
transmits and receives via satellite. The terminal size is 1.2
to 2.4 meter in diameter. |
For what are VSATs used?
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VSAT systems generally connect a large number of geographically
dispersed sites to a central location. VSAT networks may transmit
voice, data, fax, or video conferencing. |
What are the components in a VSAT site?
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A typical VSAT site consists of a parabolic-shaped antenna mounted
on the roof of a building, connected by a cable to a chassis inside
the building. Operators install these antennas at customer sites
and buy transmission capacity on satellites. |
What does the VSAT unit contain?
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A typical VSAT unit contains a modem for translating satellite
transmissions back into data (and vice versa) and terrestrial
interfaces for connecting customer equipment. |
What is a satellite transponder?
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A satellite transponder is a combination receiver, frequency converter,
and transmitter package. It is physically part of a communications
satellite. Communications satellites typically have 12 to 24 onboard
transponders. |
What are the typical VSAT network configurations?
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VSAT networks can be arranged in point-to-point, star, mesh, star/mesh,
and broadcast configurations. The preferred arrangement depends
on the kind of information flow the network will service. |
What is a point-to-point VSAT network?
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A point-to-point network allows two-way communications between
two VSAT sites. |
What is a star VSAT network?
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A star network allows any number of VSAT sites to have two-way
communication with a central hub. |
What is a mesh VSAT network?
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A mesh network allows two-way communications between any VSAT
sites in a network. A central hub is not necessary. Each site
communicates to another site with a single satellite hop. |
What are the different VSAT transmission methods?
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There are three basic VSAT transmission types: TDMA, time-division
multiple access; DAMA, demand-assigned multiple access; and SCPC
/ MCPC, single/multiple channel per carrier. |
What are the characteristics of a TDMA transmission type?
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TDMA is a form of multiple access in which a single carrier is
shared by many users. When signals from earth stations reach the
satellite, they are processed in time segments without overlapping.
TDMA is typically used in a packet switched environment when small
or moderate amounts of data are to be transferred. |
What are the characteristics of a DAMA transmission type?
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The DAMA protocol is used to share bandwidth in a time division
mode. Typically DAMA transmission is used in a packet-switched
environment when large amounts of data are to be transferred.
Is a highly efficient means of instantaneously assigning telephony
channels in a transponder according to immediate traffic demands.
DAMA is also applicable in a circuit-switched environment and
is usually characterized by allowing each user a variable slot
of time on a demand (or request) basis. |
What are the characteristics of a SCPC / MCPC transmission type?
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SCPC / MCPC systems use a dedicated satellite link between a few
distinct locations. These links can support either a single telephone
line or several telephone or data lines. Such links generally
are permanently assigned with no carrier switching or rerouting
over the satellite. |
What is SCPC-DAMA transmission?
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SCPC-DAMA systems provide a control network on top of an SCPC
network. When a particular station wishes to make a telephone
call, the control network is used to forward that request to a
central processor that sets up a dedicated SCPC link between the
two sites. When the call is finished, the link is taken down and
the satellite resources can be used for a different call. SCPC-DAMA
best supports applications in which there are few telephone lines
per site and telephone calls are infrequent. |
What is TDM-TDMA transmission?
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TDM-TDMA networks are designed for interactive data applications.
TDM-TDMA systems feature a large expensive hub that provides basic
data communications to very inexpensive remote sites. The architecture
supports many remote stations using a small amount of satellite
bandwidth. Data rates supported at the remote sites are typically
between 1.2 kbps and 9.6 kbps; however, this type of traffic has
a very low average data rate. Each station may transmit bursts
of 9.6 kbps data, but they generally average less than 100 bps.
Typical applications are transactional in nature. Examples include
credit card verifications, point-of-sale systems, SCADA systems,
and inventory control. |
What is TDMA-DAMA transmission?
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TDMA-DAMA networks have the same demand assignment capability
as SCPC-DAMA networks, but also have division multiplexing to
reduce the need for multiple modems at each site. TDMA-DAMA networks
allow many telephone calls to be placed simultaneously to different
destinations through a single station. |
What is FDMA transmission?
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FDMA (Frequency Division Multiple Access) uses a single modem
for all communication from a site and transmits for very short
intervals and at higher data rates. FDMA uses multiple carriers
within the same transponder within which each uplink has been
assigned frequency slot and bandwidth. It is usually used in conjunction
with frequency modulation. |
What is the advantage of a TDMA-DAMA system?
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TDMA-DAMA systems support many telephone lines with very little
incremental cost. E1 or T1 interfaces can be provided for direct
digital connections to PBXs or telephony switches. TDMA-DAMA systems
are also flexible in supporting applications such as data, video
conferencing, broadcast, and the like. In addition, TDMA networks
are hubless, which eliminates the high cost of a hub and a single
point of failure within the network. |
What applications do TDMA-DAMA networks best support?
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TDMA-DAMA networks support applications with mesh connectivity
and applications that require multiple services that are integrated
into a single network such as telephony, low-to-high speed data
imaging, fax, and interactive video conferencing. |