Fixed Satellite Service (FSS) is a type of mobile telephone service that allows users in a specific area to make and receive cell phone calls. FSS systems or cell phone towers are placed in strategic, fixed locations and provide service to thousands of individual users simultaneously. Generally, FSS systems provide reception for several square miles around them, which borders another FSS system’s reception area. This allows users to communicate with multiple FSS systems as they travel without losing reception.   How Fixed Satellite Service Works FSS systems are essentially large Read More

A polar orbit is an orbit of any object in space, natural or synthetic, that passes around the Earth in a North-to-South direction rather than a West to East direction, which is known as an “equatorial orbit”. Polar orbits are advantageous because they will eventually travel across every possible latitudinal and longitudinal position on the Earth, allowing satellites that depend on a polar orbit to monitor the Earth much better than any other type of orbiting satellite.   How Polar Orbit Works Polar-orbiting satellites are launched in the same way Read More

Backward Error Correction, also known as an “Automatic Repeat Request” is an error correction technique in which a receiving device sends a request to the source device to re-send information. Backward Error Correction is used in situations where some of the transmitted data has been lost or corrupted during transit and the transmitting device must resend the information in order for the receiving device to understand the transmission. Backward Error Correction is the opposite of “Forward Error Correction”, in which a transmitting device simply sends redundant information to make up Read More

Satellite launch sites are facilities on the Earth that are designed to receive and launch satellites that may orbit the Earth or travel to other planets or even star systems. Satellite launch sites are often referred to as “spaceports” or “cosmodromes” and may be situated on ground or in any ocean. While satellites are often launched from facilities that are designed to launch space shuttles and/or rockets, some facilities are entirely dedicated to launching satellites. Although many different companies and organizations own satellites, these companies are not allowed to launch Read More

Satellite Internet is an alternative to dialup, ISDN, DSL, or cable Internet. Satellite Internet is extremely interesting to customers who cannot get DSL or cable Internet. Satellite Internet offers broadband speeds, but suffers from high latency due to long round-trip times made necessary by the distance to geostationary satellites. The latency issues related to satellite Internet can be significantly reduced through the use of caches and protocol accelerators. Types of Satellite Internet The two main types of satellite Internet are those in which the return path is sent using dial-up Read More

The basic types of satellite systems include geostationary (GEO), Low Earth Orbit (LEO), Medium Earth Orbit (MEO), and Highly Elliptical Orbit (HEO) satellites. There are also public and private satellite systems such as Television Receive Only (TVRO), Direct Broadcast Satellite (DBS), Global Positioning System (GPS), and multibeam satellite operations. Geosynchronous satellites orbit the Earth on repeatedly regular points over time. Each GEO satellite is stationary over one spot above the equator and therefore does not need any tracking from receiving and transmitting antennas on the Earth. GEO satellites enable the Read More

The Ka band uplink uses frequencies between 27.5GHz and 31Ghz and the downlink uses frequencies between 18.3 and 18.8Ghz and between 19.7 and 20.2Ghz. The Ka band is branch of the K band from the electromagnetic spectrum. The term “Ka-band” is from Kurz-above, which originates from the German phrase “kurz” implying short. Ka band dishes can be much smaller than C band dishes. Ka band dishes vary from 2′ to 5′ in diameter. Ka band satellites typically transmit with much more power than C band satellites. The higher frequencies of Read More