VSAT – VERY SMALL APERTURE TERMINAL

VSAT (Very Small Aperture Terminal) is a satellite communications system that serves home and business users. A VSAT interfaces between the user’s computer and an outside antenna with a transceiver. The tranceiver receives or sends a signal to a satellite transponder in the sky. The satellite sends and receives signals from an earth station computer that acts as a hub for the system. VSATs are most commonly used to transmit:

1. Narrowband data. This includes point of sale transactions such as credit card, polling or radio-frequency identification (RFID) data, or supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) data.

2. Broadband data, for the provision of satellite Internet access to remote locations, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) or video.