This is not an operating service - just an educational illustration of what might be done using this beam
Eutelsat W5 broadband coverage contours *
This write up describes how ViaSat LinkStar equipment might be used to provide high-performance delivery of broadband accelerated IP traffic to the home and to small offices/home offices, small/medium enterprises or communities and large businesses.
Link-Star provides users with a secure networking solution to connect multiple PCs to broadband access via satellite.
The terminal provides expensive but immediate access to broadband applications such as streaming video, distance learning/training, Internet and intranet/extranet access.
Satellite is an appropriate broadband solution when cable modem or ADSL telephone line is not possible. It is also attractive for temporary sites - emergency situations, service demonstrations, large public events and other urgent but important communication requirements in difficult areas.
The terminal is a stand-alone, self-contained unit, so you don't have to run any special software on your PC.
Equipment details
The outdoor equipment comprises the antenna with transmitter and low noise receiver mounted on the front. There will be three cables, transmit and receive coaxial cables and a safety earth cable.
The indoor unit is one part.
The outdoor equipment comprises the antenna, transmitter and low noise receiver mounted on the front. The diameter of the antenna will vary according to location, but will typically be 75 to 1.2m diameter. Larger dishes up to 1.8m may be used for the highest tx bit rates and in locations at the extreme beam edge - see "Eutelsat W5" coverage pattern.
Transmitter power may be 0.5, 1, 2 or 4 watts. 1 watt transmitter in standard. Safety distance is 50cm. The higher transmitter powers of 2 or 4 watt or alternatively a larger dish, may be required if the highest 1250 ksym/s transmit bit rate is required.
The dish is a more sturdy and more accurately made version of the typical Satellite television dish. The dish must be pointed to 0.1 deg accuracy and the polarisation adjusted to 0.25 deg accuracy to avoid interference to other satellite communications services.
Indoor equipment dimensions: 13" wide x 8" deep, 1U high. Requires free air venting both sides
Put the indoor box in a cool, clean, dry place. Apart from the initial set up the box is entirely controlled from the satellite internet hub.
Power supply: Universal 110/220 volts auto-sensing/auto-ranging AC universal power supply.
Frequencies 10.95-12.75 GHz receive, 14-14.5 GHz transmit. IF: 950 - 1450 MHz
Bit rates: I favour dedicated bit rates where you don't share with anyone else. The starting point is 8k uplink and 32k downlink which is ideal for a PC. It is comparable with a dial up modem line.
Receive bit rates: 32kbit/s to 36 Mbit/s QPSK FEC concatenated Reed Soloman 188/204 plus Viterbi 7/8, 5/6, 3/4, 2/3 or 1/2. Actual receive bit rates will be set by the monthly service tariff. The list below shows examples of technically possible rates (kbit/s).
| 32 | 64 | 128 | 256 | 384 |
| 512 | 640 | 768 | 896 | 1024 |
| 1280 | 1536 | 1792 | 2048 |
Transmission bit rates: 156, 312, 625, 1250 ksym/s QPSK 2/3 rate Turbo code DVB-RCS compliant. Actual operating bit rate will be set by the monthly tariff and may be set as a fraction of the transmission rate, starting at 8kbit/s. If the dish size and transmitter power are sufficient there is the possibility of upgrade to higher tx bit rate without hardware change.
|
Return link Carrier Rate |
Min Throughput |
Nominal Throughput |
Max throughput |
Transmission info rate |
|
k symbols / sec |
kbit/s |
kbit/s |
kbit/s |
kbit/s |
|
156.25 |
95 |
128 |
146 |
208 |
|
312.5 |
215 |
256 |
310 |
416 |
|
625 |
439 |
512 |
689 |
832 |
|
1250 |
870 |
1024 |
1404 |
1664 |
Connecting to the customer's equipment.
At the back of the indoor unit is one RJ45 10BaseT/100BaseT ethernet connection. This is directly connected to the customer's equipment - a single PC perhaps or more commonly an ethernet hub or switch allowing for the connection of many local PCs in a LAN.
To set up each PC:
Do Start, Control panel, Network, and then set, using the site specific
details provided, for example:
IP Address 172.17.40.xxx
Subnet mask 255.255.255.xxx
Gateway 172.17.40.xxx
Two DNS addresses will additionally be provided to enable internet working.