Fast Comm is Pleased to announce the services on YAHSAT Y1A C-Band & Ku-Band , the latest addition in a group of satellites under YAHSAT portfolio , ST-2 Satellite  (SingTel) and ABS-7 Satellite, providing C-Band & Ku-Band iDirect X3 Shared & Dedicated Service and; SCPC/DVB-S2 Service over the African continent , Middle east , Afghanistan & part of Europe,

 YAHSAT Y1A C-Band Coverage Map:

Fast Comm Offers iDirect Shared & Dedicated Services with guaranteed CIR and statistical burst rate that is suited for small and medium networks, offering significant pricing advantages. The solution meets broadband requirements such as internet and VPN access to enterprise networks as well as real time VOIP & Video Conferencing applications.

YAHSAT Y1A Ku-Band Coverage Map: 

Fast Comm Ka-Band Service
Fast Click: Can instantly connect to the internet using a small satellite Dish and; satellite Modem. Whether you are in desert, in a rural area or even in any remote site, with Fast Click you can fulfill all your internet needs quickly and reliably.

HYLAS 2 Ka-Band Coverage Map:

If you have any queries regarding any of this information please do not hesitate to contact

Fast Comm sales -

Email  info@fastcommunications.net  ,Website  www.fastcommunications.net ,Skype fastcomm786  

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MotoSAT introduced the motorized selfpointing auto-acquiring antenna for Ku-band satellite, The MESA TM with Global Network Management System (GNMS) is moving fixed VSAT communications into a new era of network services. The MESA is a motorized selfpointing auto-acquiring antenna that can be mounted on either a permanent or portable fixed base.

Building upon MotoSAT’s proven mobile satellite technology, the MESA uses tri-axis antenna alignment to provide automatic satellite peaking and acquisition for fixed base applications. It is designed to provide single button satellite acquisition and automatic reacquisition in the harshest of environments.Most businesses rely upon terrestrial connections for voice and data communications.

When these traditional means go down, whether for short-durations or long-term outages, your enterprise could be without critical services for hours or days.MotoSAT’s satellite to LAN failover systems can provide your enterprise with the assurance that critical services will be uninterrupted when an outage occurs. When the MESA antenna is combined with our EtherSAT™ on-demand service, fixed base enterprises are confident that they have the backup and redundancy needed to keep their critical services supported.

With over 25 years of experience, MotoSAT is a leading provider of innovative mobile and fixed satellite antenna solutions. MotoSAT has an install base of over 25,000 and a strong network of 250 dealers. MotoSAT's automated satellite antenna solutions are offered in the consumer, military, rural communications, emergency response, oil & gas, medical, media broadcasting, and enterprise network backup markets. For more information on MotoSAT's fixed and mobile antennas or broadband services, visit www.motosat.com

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The ODU or antenna includes the dish, or reflector, and the feed arm, which holds the active elements (transmitter and receiver). These are pictured above

The Dish or Reflector
The older dish, shown on the left with the TV attachment, is made of fiberglass, with an embedded wire mesh. It measures 0.74 meter in surface area (39" x 23"). The newer Raven dish is still .74 meter, but is rounder (34 1/4" x 28 1/2") and it is made of a lightweight metal. Often, when only referring to the dish, without the feed arm, the term reflector is used. The latest Prodelin dish was shown earlier.

The Feed Arm
Located on the fully assembled VSAT dish assembly, the Rx-Tx feed arm is normally removed and safely stored, as part of the process for moving to a new location. The feed arm consists of the feed support arm and the outdoor electronics.

All of the active outdoor components connect to the support arm, which also adds strength (and weight) to the completely assembled antenna. The outdoor electronics consist of the LNB, which receives outroute (from the NOC) Ku-band signals from the satellite, and the transmitter, which transmits inbound (to the NOC) Ku-band signals to the satellite. Power is supplied by the HughesNet satellite modem. For those who are interested, this is discussed in more detail, below.

LNB
The Low-Noise Block down-converter (LNB) is used to amplify and frequency convert outroute signals received by the antenna, for input into the modem via the Sat-In cable.

The antenna receives the outbound signal in the Ku-band frequency, for input to the wave guide end of the LNB. The LNB first amplifies the input Ku-band signals. It then uses a local oscillator (LO), to frequency translate input signals to L-band frequencies, which are used on the coaxial cables.

The signal noise value is an electrical specification for the LNB, which is critical to outroute signal (your received signal) quality performance. The lower the noise figure, the better the signal quality performance will be.

The LNB is powered from the modem, via a DC power supply coupled on the coaxial RF input connector, which connects to the receive IFL cable.

Transmitter
The transmitter is used to frequency translate and power amplify inroute signals from the modem and output them to the antenna, for transmission to the satellite.

The modem sends the inroute signal at an L-band frequency to the transmitter, using Sat-Out and the transmit coaxial cable. This signal is input to the transmitter, where it is frequency converted to the transmit Ku-band frequency, using a nominally fixed local oscillator (LO). This Ku-band signal is then power amplified to operate the transmitter at a nominal one-watt output power (at saturation). The fixed output power is input to the antenna, for transmission to the satellite.

The transmitter is powered from the modem, via a DC power supply coupled on the coaxial RF output connector, which connects to the transmit IFL cable

Ku-band
Communications satellites send and receive electromagnetic Ku-band signals, which are in the super high-frequency range. Microwave phone signals, which are relayed between tall towers, are in this same frequency range. However, satellite Ku-band signals are usually not susceptible to interference from these towers.
Satellite Mobility Support Network (SMSN) HughesNet User Guide

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By Prima Setiyanto Widodo

Satellite Communications Systems are infrastructures that can be used for broadband multimedia applications. In the communication satellite field, the C-band (4-6 GHz) frequencies have been used since the beginning and are now saturated. The Ku-band (11-18 GHz) has been used also for communication satellite systems, because with this frequency a bigger bandwidth can be applied. The Ku-band has other advantages, such as avoidance of interference with terrestrial microwave systems that often use the C-band frequency. However, for Indonesia, the use of the Ku-band needs a thorough examination because frequencies above 10 GHz are vulnerable to rain, especially heavy rain that often occurs in Indonesia. This article examines the possibility of using the Ku-band for satellite communication systems in Indonesia.

In 1976 President Soeharto of the Republic of Indonesia, gave the name PALAPA to the first Indonesian satellite. At that time Indonesia was the 3rd nation in the world to use satellites as its telecommunications infrastructure. Indonesia can be proud of this fact, because Indonesia’s neighbors Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand had not yet shown any interest in having their own satellites.
Indeed, considering Indonesia’s geographical features: consisting of islands stretching from West to East and from South to North, it is reasonable for Indonesia to adopt a satellite platform for its communications system. By using satellites one can obtain wide coverage, quick rollout of facilities (compared to buried optic fiber cables) unconstrained by natural conditions and distance.
Indonesia is now not alone in South-east Asia/East Asia in utilizing satellite services for voice, video and data. Twenty years after the historic launch of its first satellite in 1976, Malaysia and Thailand have launched their own satellites, followed by Singapore and Taiwan constructing their satellite cooperatively. In addition are Hongkong, Korea (Koreasat) and Japan (JCSAT).
The frequency bands used for satellite communications have also developed. Besides using the Cband, the use of the Ku-band has become more and more popular, even though Indonesian satellite operators are still unsure about the technical feasibility of using the Ku-band in Indonesia.
Breakthroughs in the satellite field should allow Indonesiato use frequencies higher than 10 GHz, i.e. the Ku-band (11 – 18 GHz) and Ka-band (20 – 30 GHz). The advantage is that the higher the frequency used, the larger the bandwidth. The limitation is that frequencies higher than 10 GHz are subject to higher rain
attenuation, thereby causing a decrease in communication “availability.”

The International Telecommunication Union, ITU, has categorized Indonesia as Region P, countries with very high rain precipitation. According to ITU’s version, rain intensity that will cause the interruption of a communication link for 0.01% per year is 145 mm/ hour. Such rain intensity can cause 28 db rain attenuation for a link working in the 14 GHz band; that is pretty high. Such an attenuation should be compensated for with powerful RF equipment at the transmit side. The value can be calculated by using link-budget analysis. Should we be pessimistic that we cannot use such frequencies? Let us study it carefully. We should ask ourselves whether it will rain all year long. Of course not. And will the rain attenuation be 28 db consistently? This is also not the case, because the rain attenuation is dependent on the rainfall at a certain location. There is still hope for the use of frequencies above 10 GHz in Indonesia.
http://satjournal.tcom.ohiou.edu/issue8/pers_setiyanto.html

inkbuilding

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The coverage map shows the downlink beam power coverage contours from the New Skies satellite NSS6 located at 95 deg east geostationary orbit longitu

This is the North East Asia spot beam. Being small in area it is technically ideal for the small dish home user or business service for anyone within the coverage area.
Look carefully at the map and consider your location.
If you are in the extreme outer contour you will need a larger dish compared with the smaller sizes required nearer the centre.
Your VSAT dish size: Inner three contours 89 cm diameter, next 1.2m, extreme outer edge 1.8m diameter.
Coverage countries include:
Bunguran, Philippines, Luzon, Mindanao, Sulu Sea, Celebes Sea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, China, Shanghai, Inner Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, Japan, Hokkaido, Sakhalin, Manchuria, Kuril Isles
The Vipersat VSAT hub is by Global Teleports co-located at the NewSkies Mediaport at Adelaide, Australia.
http://www.satsig.net/nss6-se-asia.htm

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The coverage map shows the downlink beam power coverage contours from the New Skies satellite NSS6 located at 95 deg east geostationary orbit longitude.

This is the South East Asia spot beam. Being small in area it is technically ideal for the small dish home user or business service for anyone within the coverage area.
Look carefully at the map and consider your location. In the extreme outer contour you will need a larger dish compared with the smaller sizes required nearer the centre.

Your VSAT dish size:

Inner three contours 89cm and 1.2m, extreme outer edge 1.8m diameter. Service using the business quality dedicated 1:1 Vipersat SCPC technology.

Coverage countries include:
Hainan Island, Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, Kampuchea, Malaya, Malaysia, Phuket, Penang, Singapore, Aceh, Sumatra, Indonesia, Java, Borneo, Kalimantan, Celebes, Sulawest, Flores Sea. From : http://www.satsig.net/nss6-se-asia.htm

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System quickly configures C-130 aircraft for U.S. Special Forces missions

ViaSat Inc. has provided the U.S. Special Forces with a new airborne broadband satcom system to greatly enhance its warfighting capabilities. The system is already in use in the Middle East and coverage areas will expand as more terminals and hubs are delivered. This new operational capability, an extension of the ArcLight® mobile broadband system, is installed on C-130 aircraft, primarily for sending high resolution video back to higher command authorities for further analysis and identification. It also provides two way broadband communications for a variety of command and control needs. The U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) is the first military organization to use the new satcom system which taps into the ArcLight commercial broadband satellite network for private business jets and maritime applications operated by ViaSat and SES Americom Government Services.

The C-130 satcom system is built around the advanced ArcLight modem and networking technology using a spread spectrum waveform to enable the use of mobile satellite antennas as small as 29 centimeters in diameter. The antenna is enclosed in a radome attached to a redesigned emergency escape hatch. In a few minutes, operators can configure an aircraft for their specific mission without any permanent aircraft alterations, then quickly return the aircraft to its normal configuration when the mission is complete, while maintaining safety-of-flight integrity. The U.S. Air Force-certified hatch-mount terminal enables secure access to Department of Defense wide area networks at raw data rates up to 10 Mbps inbound and 512 kbps outbound while airborne.

“This system was first demonstrated by the U.S. Joint Forces Command, was JITC Certified, declared ready for network-centric operations, and now is operational on these USSOCOM aircraft,” said Larry Taylor, ViaSat Government Satcom director of business development. “This new broadband service provides a much greater level of real-time situational awareness while leveraging commercial satcom technology to greatly reduce operational and support costs compared to other systems.”

The ArcLight spread spectrum technology assures regulatory compliance with FCC and ITU rules governing adjacent satellite interference. Licensed in over 25 countries, the system delivers a terrestrial broadband experience to aircraft, small maritime vessels, European trains, and ground on-the-move vehicles using commercial Ku-band satellites. It can also easily adapt to other frequency bands. source:http://viasat.com/

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By Prima Setiyanto Widodo

The use of the Ku-band for satellite communications in tropical regions like Indonesia seems to become more frequent. We observe that several satellites “parked” above Indonesia have Ku-band transponders, and even Ka-band transponders. Just look at the satellite owned by NewSkies (NSS 6), launched in December 2002 and positioned at 95° East, containing only Ku-band transponders and with a footprint directed to Indonesia (Sumatra, Java, Borneo, Celebes, Bali, Nusa Tenggara, Moluccas). This is also the case for the
iPSTAR satellite, to be launched this year, 2004. The Malaysia owned Measat 3, to be launched in 2005 and co-located with the Measat 1 satellite will have 24 Ku-band transponders. The Ku-band footprint directed towards Indonesia has been named by Measat the “Ku-band for Indonesia”. Measat 4 is planned to cover the whole of Indonesia from West to East. This satellite will be launched by Malaysia in the year 2007.

Why have those satellite planners the courage to use the Ku-band frequency? Of course they have calculated the technical feasibility, besides applying a regenerative system, also called Automatic Link Control, which is to exercise control over the power of the satellite to compensate for rain attenuation up to 10 db. Furthermore, for the ground segment there now exists a new development, that is the use of AUPC (automatic uplink power control) and Turbo Coding. Actually, AUPC has long been available, but it is only recently being massproduced.

With AUPC we can automatically control the transmit power in line with the rain attenuation, in general up to 9 db. With turbo coding, we can also save the power used, so that with the same transmit power we will obtain a bigger fade margin compared to a satellite modem that does not use turbo coding. At this moment, Adaptive Coding is being developed whereby the system will adapt itself to the weather conditions. The system will change the modulation in case of a weather change (rain), while retaining the bandwidth; only the throughput will decrease. By using adaptive coding, link-availability will increase.

There is an additional problem in satellite communications. TCP/IP applications have difficulties in passing through because of the long delay caused by the time it takes for the signal to travel from earth to space to earth. TCP/IP was designed for short delay times, passing through terrestrial connections. Are there solutions for this? There are, among others, by re-engineering the TCP algorithm, TCP spoofing and IP over DVB. Besides that, there is a TCP that has been designed for satellites (see www.idirect.net). This problem is not a serious hindrance any more. VPN services over satellites are no
longer just a dream; it has been proven that they can be applied successfully.

It can be imagined what could happen if these various new technologies are combined. It is time that Indonesia abandons its wariness to use Ku-band frequencies. An inexpensive system of broadband satellite services will assist greatly in the process of empowering its citizens, because for such a wide area as Indonesia, the appropriate information technology infrastructure is satellites.
One can imagine ATMs that respond quickly, and also Internet kiosks that can be moved from one site to another. The penetration of banking services can be executed faster, as well as the penetration of Internet. Distance learning and e-learning can be established relatively speedily and at lower cost. There is even the possibility to have General Elections on-line with VSATs connected to every community. This agility can only be carried out if the equipment used robust, fast and compact. We can do this with Ku-band systems.

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By Prima Setiyanto Widodo

The rain attenuation for wireless communication links can be calculated using following models:

• ITU – R (formerly CCIR Model)
• SAM (Simple Attenuation Model)
• Global Crane Model
• Model DAH (Dissanayake, Allnutt, Haidara Model)

To confirm which model is the prefered model to be used in Indonesia, field measurements should also be carried out.

Measurements of rain attenuation in Indonesia have been done for satellite communication links in Padang, Cibinong, Surabaya and Bandung. It has been found out, after due analysis, that the DAH Model for rain attenuation prediction is valid for Indonesia, besides the ITU Model. The DAH Model has become an ITU Recommendation since 2001 (Recommendation No. ITU-R P.618-7).

Based on calculations using the Rainfall Rate Prediction Model for Indonesia, the rainfall rate can be found for several locations in Indonesia. The values of the rainfall rate are then used for calculating the Rain Attenuation using the DAH Model. Thus can be calculated the “link availability” predictions for Ku-band systems in Indonesia.

The calculations by the author of this article show that the use of the Ku-band for satellite communications systems is feasible with a link availability of 99.7%. As a practical experience, based on field test results for 512 kbps data rate using a 1.8 m diameter antenna, 4 watts RF power and distance between transmitter and receiver of 180 km, demonstrated a link availability of 99.9%, confirming our previous calculations.

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The Rainfall Rate Prediction Model applicable especially for Indonesia can be developed more accurate and convincingly with the availability of field measurements as presented above. By using abovementioned data, and added to it (other) data concerning rain and thunderstorm days from the Indonesian Meteorological and Geophysical Institute, the Rainfall Rate Prediction Model for the Indonesia archipelago becomes:

R0.01 = f(Lat,Long,M,Mm) = 128.192 – 0.037Lat - 0.393Long +
0.012M + 0.017Mm
R0.01 = rainfall-rate 0.01 percent of time in a year (mm/h)
M = average rainfall a year (mm)
Mm = maximum rainfall (monthly) in 30 years
Lat = latitude
Long = longitude

This model should be used when carrying out wireless communication
link planning for wireless local loops, line of sight and satellite.

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The Rainfall Rate is one of the factors used to determine the degree of rain attenuation in the propagation of wireless communications, including satellite communications. Field measurements and recordings for long time periods are the best (empirical) method to know the rainfall rate in a country. Such data can then be used for various calculations concerning signal attenuation caused by rain.

Another way is to depend on models that have been developed by such bodies as the ITU-R Rep. 563-4 and the Global Crane model. Although both models are used to calculate rain attenuation in Indonesia, some experts consider these models not accurate enough, because there were too few samples used when developing the models.

Indonesia is fortunate that further research has been done on this matter with the idea that more accurate models can be constructed. This research has been carried out at 9 locations in the Indonesian archipelago: Jatiluhur, Cibinong, Denpasar, Padang, Surabaya, Bandung, Tanahmerah, Putusibau and Maros. Also one location is in Singapore, i.e. Bukit Timah, which is geographically located in the same position as Indonesia.

Results show that the Rainfall Rate for a 0.01% (R0.01) observation time is as follows (see table).

Table 1.1. R0.01 Rainfall Rate Measurements in Indonesia

Besides the ITU- and Global Crane model, there exist also the Rice-Holmberg and ESA/ Salonen Baptista models. From the table can be seen that there are significant differences between the results of the field measurements and the calculations using several well-known models.

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