Satellite Broadband

For internet access in frequently moving locations as well as in those locations where internet could not be accessed terrestrially, satellite broadband is one technology that more than comes handy. A huge advantage of this system is that internet can be accessed worldwide via satellite signals. It comes handy even to vessels at the ocean.

The hardware components of the system are headed by a transmitting station that is called in other words teleport, hub, uplink facility or head end. This hub has a couple of components; a satellite uplink and an internet connection. The earth station is the remote station the set up of which consists of an outdoor and an indoor unit. The outdoor unit comprises of a feedhorn, feed line, universal LNB and a satellite dish with mount, as the indoor unit is all about a DVB-S PCI card that comes built-in the computer or a DVB external modem which is connected to the computer via a RJ-45 8P8C Ethernet port or a USB port.

The software components of the system refer to a minimum of programming to set proxy-server settings as well as to deliver authentication. The DVB card driver often does the filtering. Frequently, IP stacks of non-standard kind are engaged to address the asymmetry and the latency problems of the satellite connection. Encrypted data is sent over the satellite link for preventing others from accessing this.

There are one way satellite internet multi-cast systems that are used for IP multicast based data, video and audio distribution, and two-way satellite only internet service that can send data to a hub teleport after receiving it from the VSAT site. Here the satellite is the interface. The common limitations of the satellite broadband are; rain fade, line of sight, latency and fresnel zone.

The operation theory of the satellite broadband is also quite simple. The earth station or the Teleport’s proxy server that is configured to route to the QoS server, all the broadband traffic. It also ensures that users do not exceed their monthly traffic limits or the allotted bandwidth. The traffic is then directed to the encapsulator that inserts the IP packets into the DVB packets. Subsequently the DVB packets are directed first to the DVB modem and then to the BUC (transmitter).