VSAT, Networking, and Hobby

The Ku-band is 12-18 GHz portion of the electromagnetic spectrum in the microwave range of frequencies and this frequency is primarily used for satellite communication. However, there is a disadvantage of Ku-Band system. As this is higher frequency than 10 GHz in heavy rainfall areas, a noticeable degradation occurs, due to the problem caused by and proportional to the amount of rainfall (known as " rain fade "). This problem can be mitigated, by deploying an appropriate link budget strategy when designing the satellite network, and allocating a higher link margin and power to compensate rain fade loss. Another way to reduce this rain fade, we can use hydrophobic coating on antenna dish. Hydrophobic literally means of "water fearing" and in this context, it means that the water on the antenna surface is in beads rather than in sheets. Water which appears will absorb much of the signal, leading to high losses. If water is in beads, the energy will be slight...

High Throughput Satellites (HTS) are currently hot topic in satellite industry. The Ka-band satellites are optimized for data applications, using techniques as multiple spot beams with extensive frequency reuse, which means they achieve significantly greater capacity than conventional C-band or Ku-band satellites optimized for broadcast applications such as TV. Lets look the EchoStar XVII satellite with JUPITER high throughput technology which cover North America with 60 spot beams and has well in excess of 100 Gbps of capacity, enough to deliver high-speed internet service to an estimated 1.5 to 2 million HughesNet subscribers. This HTS investment in North America area has been justified because of the huge consumer demand for high-speed internet access, with more than 1 million subscribers enjoying high-speed internet access via satellite from the two providers, Hughes and ViaSat. They have both announced plan to launch next generation HTS satellites in 2016, bringing tota...