SatTechnology: VSAT
smart tools, errors can occur further down the line. naturally, that is part and parcel of the environment. If they are constantly moving, they are constantly having to re-align the antenna and that can be easily misaligned, especially in those situations. Even for the static units, they are often in remote locations and often with no trained staff around. Degradation of the VSAT or associated hardware often goes unnoticed until its effects become noticeable as interference to other satellite services. The challenge has then been to determine which terminal is causing interference, since many terminals share the same frequency in TDMA mode.” According to Coleman, the satellite operator members of IRG have spotted a trend. “As soon as there is any type (fixed or mobile) of VSATs in any given area, wherever it is in the world, the amount of cross-polar interference and Adjacent Satellite Interference (ASI) greatly increases. As they get older, then added to that is GSM retransmission.” Sanchez echoes this concern. “A lot of VSATs are remote and unmonitored, and often without due diligence and regular maintenance. Add to that extreme weather conditions often witnessed in these areas that severely affect the outdoor unit. It
“As VSAT networks continue to grow, we need to make the jobs of installers and the network operators easier to manage, and ultimately bring down the operating costs, which is currently one of the biggest stumbling blocks for VSAT operators” AlVARO SAnCHEZ, Sales and Marketing Director, Integrasys
is not surprising therefore that many of these units will fail at some point, and only if they are lucky, they won’t bring down the entire network in the process.” Some VSAT equipment is being built to withstand this. For example, ETl Systems’ latest RF over fibre link module for VSAT is fully weatherproof and extremely
Andrew Bond, Sales Director and Head of Marketing at ETL Systems.
Alvaro Sanchez, Sales and Marketing Director, Integrasys.
18 | SatellitePro | November 2016
compact, making it easy to get to remote locations and rugged enough to cope with the harsh conditions only too common in the VSAT environment, whether from the journey to get to the location or from constant movement throughout its life. There is a definite consensus that one of the biggest challenges with VSAT is the lack of visibility when something goes wrong. Coleman says we need better monitoring to resolve that, citing some good examples of smart tools emerging from IRG membership. This includes Alusat from Integrasys, a tool which sits at the VSAT operator’s network Operation Centre (nOC) and monitors the entire VSAT network, proactively checking the uplink and downlink health of the units. Operators can determine different thresholds for RX and TX and the system can act automatically in different circumstances. It also delivers measured values of co-polar power, cross polar isolation, adjacent satellite interference and 1db compression point for networks with adaptive power adjustment capability. VeriSat’s SatGuard tool is the first solution on the market that can pinpoint the source of the VSAT interference with certainty as it occurs, and can monitor the