S.H.

JONDHALE POLYTECHNIC
DOMBIVLI (W)

A Microproject Report on
“Prepare a report on VSAT communication
based on internet survey”

1721 – Gaurav Thakare

1722 – Devesh Phanse
1723 – Manthan Bhoir
1740 – Chirantan Ahirrao

Under Guidance: -
Mr. Adarsh Batawale

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 MAHARASHTRA STATE BOARD OF
TECHNICAL EDUCATION

CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that Mr. Gaurav Thakare, Mr.

Chirantan Ahirrao, Mr. Devesh Phanse, Mr.
Manthan Bhoir, of the Sixth Semester of
Diploma in Electronics and Telecommunication
Engineering of Institute S.H.J.P(code 0044) has
completed Micro Project satisfactorily in course
for the academic year 2024-25 as prescribed in
the curriculum.

Place: Dombivli Date:

Subject Teacher Head of Department Principal

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

We have taken efforts in this project.

However, it is not possible without the kind
support and help of our teachers and college
staff. We would like to extend my sincere
thanks to all of them. We are highly indeed to
S.H.J.P for their guidance and constant
supervision as well as for providing necessary
information regarding the project. We would
like to express my gratitude towards our
parents for their kind cooperation and
encouragement which helped us in
completion of this project.

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 Index

Sr No. Topic Page no.

1 Introduction 5

2 VSA outdoor unit 6

3 VSA indoor unit 7

4 Working 9

5 VSAT features 10

6 VSAT network architechture 11

7 VSAT antenna and trasnmitters 16

8 Advantages & Disadvantages 18

9 Applications 19

10 Future Outcomes 20

11 Conclusions 21

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 Introduction

VSAT (Very Small Aperture Terminal) describes a small

terminal that can be used for two-way communications via
satellite. VSAT networks offer value-added satellite-based
services capable of supporting the Internet, data, video, LAN,
voice/fax communications, and can provide powerful private
and public network communication solutions. They are
becoming increasingly popular, as VSATs are a single, flexible
communications platform that can be installed quickly and
cost efficiently to provide telecoms solutions for consumers,
governments and corporations. The benefits of VSAT
technology are being realized in many sectors, both private
and public. From banks to administrations, schools, hospitals
and rural telecommunications, VSATs are being seized upon to
elevate economic, educational, and health standards. VSATs
have been in use for more than 20 years and, with already
millions installed all over the world, VSATs are a mature and
proven technology. VSAT comprises of two modules viz. an
outdoor unit and an indoor unit. Outdoor unit mainly houses
Antenna, feed horn,RF Transceiver,LNA,Power amplifier. The
antenna size is typically 1.8 or 2.4 meter in diameter, although
smaller antennas are also in use. The indoor unit functions as
mux-demux, modem and interfaces with the end user
equipments like PCs, LANs, Telephones or an EPABX. Following
diagram describes typical schematic consisting various VSAT
subsystems.

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 [1] VSAT outdoor unit

The Outdoor unit is usually mounted near the antenna

systems outside hence the name. It consists of RF frequency
converters (Up/Down converter), Power Amplifier, Low Noise
Amplifier (LNA), OMT and Antenna system. The Up/Down
converters convert frequencies IF to RF frequencies and vice
versa. For example, Up converter converts 70MHz to 6175
MHz and Down converter converts 3950MHz to 70MHz for C
band application. Power Amplifier will amplify the signal
before transmitting to the feed horn of the Antenna system.
LNAs are designed to amplify the noise added received signal
received from the satellite. It is designed such that it will
amplify the signal and not the noise. Noise temperature
defines LNA performance. Antenna system houses
reflector,feed horn,mount and cables. VSAT antenna usually
varies from 1.8 meters to 2.4 or 3.8 meters. Feed horn is
mounted at focal point of the antenna. The feed horn guides
transmitted power towards the antenna.

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 [2] VSAT indoor unit

The IDU consists of MUX/DEMUX, EDU (Encryption Decryption

Unit), modem (modulatordemodulator). MUX will interface
with end user equipments viz. telephone, computers and
sometime with EPABX and LAN or router, if it has to carry more
information. MUX will multiplex all the channels connected
with it using TDM. On receiver side DEMUX is used to de-
multiplex the channels and passed on to respective end user
equipments. EDU is basically the Encryption-Decryption unit
which provides security by modifying the information to be
transmitted. On receiver side encryption technique will be
conveyed so that the information can be retrieved back again.
MODEM is basically performs modulator-demodulator
functionality on transmit and receive side respectively.
Modulator inserts information on intermediate frequency (IF),
usually called carrier.

Characteristics of VSAT:
• VSAT is a two-way communication earth satellite station
that has an antenna of less than 3 meters.
• The size of the VSAT antenna may vary from 75 cm to 1.2
meters.
• The data ranges between 4 kilobytes per second to 16
megabytes per second in VSAT.
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Figure (2): components of outdoor and indoor units

This is done based on modulation scheme set. Usually QPSK

scheme is used in satellite communication and Forward Error
Correction is also employed in modem which enhances the
BER for the same transmitter power usually used in non-FEC
systems. In order to communicate between VSAT 1 and VSAT
2, modulator frequency of VSAT 1 and demodulator frequency
of VSAT 2 need to be same and vice versa to complete full
duplex communication channel. Based on frequency
assignments as per FDMA various modem and RF frequency
converters are set.

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 How VSAT Works

1. User Terminal (VSAT Dish)

o A small satellite dish (antenna) is installed at the

user's location.
o It is connected to a modem that communicates with

the satellite.
2. Uplink to Satellite
o The VSAT dish sends data to a satellite in

geostationary orbit.
o The signal travels around 35,786 km to the satellite.

3. Satellite Relays the Signal

o The satellite receives the signal and retransmits it to

a central Hub Station (Gateway Earth Station) or

directly to another VSAT.
4. Hub Station or Internet Backbone
o If a hub station is involved, it connects to the

internet or a private network.

o The hub processes the data and sends it back via

satellite to the user's VSAT.

5. Downlink to VSAT
o The user terminal receives the signal and converts it

into usable internet, voice, or video data.

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 VSAT Features

1. Ability to target small dish audiences from space and meet

specialized services requirements.
2. High powered, fully steerable Ku-band spot beams
3. Applications include POS, banking, SCADA, LAN/WAN
networking internet /intranet, video
conferencing , remote site networking .
4. End users with 90cm to 120 cm dish can downloaded
internet data 20 times faster than PSTN.
5. Uplink
A radio frequency link is modulated carrier conveying
information. Basically the satellite receives the uplink carriers
from the transmitting earth station within the field of view of
its receiving antenna
6. Downlink
Within the field of view Transponder amplifies those carriers,
translates their frequency to a lower band in order to avoid
possible output/input interference, and transmits the
amplified carrier to the station located of its transmitting
antenna.

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 VSATs Network Architecture

1.One-Way implementation:
One-way implementation mode of satellite is used in the
BSS(broadcast satellite service).This digital technology allows
the user and provider much flexibility in the operation of
broadcasting.

By using different software in the user terminal, different

subscriber can access different parts of the downlink
according to programs offered by supplier. This channel
selection from is called narrowcasting.

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3. Two-Way implementation:
A return link is designed in this implementation method so
that two-way communication can be set up over the same
satellite, from the user to hub and from the hub back to the
user.The architecture selected is the key to the economics of
two-way connection; it can be either star or mesh.

Basically, the satellite receivers the uplinked carriers from the

transmitting earth sations within the field of view of its
receiving antenna, amplifier those carriers, translates their
frequency to a lower band in order to avoid possible
output/input interference and transmits the amplified carriers
to the station located within the field of view of its
transmitting antennaVSAT network architecture is the way
Hub station and/or VSATs are interfaced with satellite to
provide the services.

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 Access control protocols
The international standard organisation (essentially of
standard committee of the United Nations) has specified the
open system interconnection(ISO/OSI) that mandates a seven
layer model for a data communication system,as shown in
given fig.(a)

Fig.(a) The ISO-OSI seven layer "stack" for interconnecting

data terminals.In this example user one and user two are
conducting a two way communication station with each other
is user interact with their local device (e.g.., a computer
keyboard/visual display unit)at the application layer of the
ISO-OSI stack.Their transaction is then routed via the various
layers, with suitable conversion, etc., until the content is ready
to be transmitted via the physical layer.

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A satellite communications link occupies primarily the physical
layer, which is where bits are carried between the terminal. A
VSAT network mast have terminal controllers and of the link
and these occupy the network and link layers, the two layers
above the physical layer. the network control centre typically
controls the system and responsible for the remaining layers.
Unfortunately few communications system conform in and
easily identifiable way to the seven layers of the ISO-OSI
model.(For example, the IP protocol stack of five layers simply
puts the first three layers of the ISO/OSI stack into one layer.)

It is, however, very useful as a conceptual model which

identifies functions that must be performed somewhere in
every data communication network. Most data
communication networks use some form of packet
transmission, in which blocks of data tagged with an address,
error control parity bits, and other useful information before
transmission. The receiving end of a link checks arriving
packets for errors, and then sends an acknowledge signal
(NAK) that tells the transmit end to resend a particular packet
because the packet had an error. Some systems do not send
acknowledgements, only NAK signals to request a
retransmission of a packet with an error, Application
Presentation Session Transport Network Link Physical UNIT III:
Satellite Service: VSAT SSGMCE, Shegaon Page 10 since this
speeds up data transmission. This is the error control method

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used in the Internet protocol TCP/IP. Generically, such systems
are known as automatic repeat request (ARQ) systems.
The ISO-OSI step was initially developed for terrestrial
communication systems. For this reason the protocols that
implement the functions of each layer were designed for use
in terrestrial circuits with low delay and low bit error rate
(BER), that is, very high performance levels. These are key
points when trying to use such protocols over satellite,
particularly those in geostationary earth orbit (GEO).Many of
the early protocols had a connection time-out of a few
milliseconds. If no reply was received from the recipient in this
interval, transmissions ceased. Similarly,anerrored signals
received from the source or an intervening node would trigger
an automatic error recovery sequence. For example, the X.25
and X.75 packet system use an ARQ approach, which,on
detecting an error in a packet, immediately requests a
retransmission and halts further transmissions until the
corrected packet is received. Frame relay and ATM
(asynchronous transfer mode) systems flag the error but
continue the flow of information (continues transmission
ARQ). In both cases, the errored transmission must be
corrected and suitable buffers at the reciever end (or
intermediate node) used to restore the packets in their
original order. The more errors that effective data throughput
rate of the link becomes. The potential for delay and
(propagation induced) errors are therefore critical design
elements in digital VSAT connections.

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VSAT Antennas Transmitters and Receivers

Antennas: The key element in a VSAT system is the earth

station antenna used at the VSAT earth stations.The small size
and low transmit power of VSAT station are the factors that
keep the price of the earth station at a low level that makes a
VSAT network an economic alternative to a terrestrial data
network using telephone lines and modems. Large antennas
are usually implemented using a symmetrical configuration,
for ease of construction ,the feed on the boresight axis. The
feed can either be in front of antenna or behind the antenna,
as in a cassegrain design.

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 Transmitters and Receivers

Historically, large earth stations are assembled element. On

the receive side, the antenna and antenna and feed
components are connected by waveguide to the front end
side, low noise amplifier (LNA).behind the LNA, a
mixture/down converter changes the singnal from radio
frequency(RF) to an intermediate frequency(IF).after filtering
and amplification, the IF signal os demodulated,
demultiplexed, and decoded, and the baseband signal
forwarded to the user. The transmit side is the mirror image
of the receive replaced by a high power amplifier (HPA)
transmitter . the design of earth station is typical of a hub
station used in a VSAT network. Much of this discrete
component design has changed with the Introduction od
digital receiver and the need to develop cheap, masss
produced VSAT terminals.

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 ADVANTAGES
There are many advantages that VSAT offers, some of them
are as follows:
• Offer flexibility as adding a site is quick and easy.
• Service charges depend on the bandwidth, which is
allocated to network in line with your requirements.
• VSAT terminals prices are falling.
• No last mile issues.
• As it is mobile, so be used for short term or emergency
communications.

Disadvantages of VSAT:
• Delay: VSAT Technology uses satellites in
Geosynchronous orbit. This type of data transmission has
an approximate delay of about 500 milliseconds for each
round trip. It introduces a problem with the application
that requires a consistent transmission.
• Environmental conditions: Like other satellite systems,
the VSAT network may also get affected by the weather
and other environmental conditions. The signal strength
may be weak at times, although it depends upon the size
of the antenna, frequency band, and the power of the
transmitters.
• Clear view: Since VSAT requires an external antenna,
therefore to contact the satellite, the location must have
a clear view of the southern sky.
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 APPLICATIONS

VSAT is an ideal satellite network that provides

communications support for a wide range of applications:

• Distance Education
• Retail Networks
• Point-of-Sale(PoS) transaction, banking, inventory,
reservation system.
• Corporate Networks
• Internet/Intranet access, corporate voice, file transfer,
video-conferencing.
• High-speed Internet access
• Browsing, E-mail, E-commerce.
• Financial Management

Frequency Bands Used

• C-band: Good for high rainfall areas, requires larger
dishes.
• Ku-band: Used for enterprise and consumer applications.
• Ka-band: High-speed broadband but affected by weather
conditions.

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 Expected Future Outcomes

• Reliable internet connectivity in remote areas.

• Improved communication infrastructure for businesses
and government agencies.
• Enhanced access to education, healthcare, and
emergency services.
• Increased digital inclusion and economic growth in
underserved regions.

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 Conclusion

The implementation of a VSAT system is a strategic solution

for providing reliable connectivity in remote and underserved
areas. By leveraging satellite technology, businesses,
government agencies, and communities can benefit from
seamless communication, improved productivity, and access
to essential services. Despite challenges such as weather
interference and initial costs, proper planning, advanced
technologies, and regulatory compliance can ensure a
successful deployment. With the increasing demand for digital
connectivity, VSAT remains a vital tool in bridging the digital
divide and supporting economic development worldwide.

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