Some crucial points about satellite internet

Satellite internet is all about transmitting and receiving data from a satellite dish mounted on the Earth, and establish a communication with an orbiting geostationary satellite launched miles above the Earth’s equator. This orbiting satellite transmits and receives data from a location on the earth known as NOC – Network Operations Centre, which itself is connected to a private network. Every communication made from the satellite dish internet must flow through this operations centre.

Data communication through satellite is somewhat similar to the kind of services obtain from land based data providers from the users’ perspective. The fundamental thing is that once the installer configures the satellite system, it acts nearly similar to all other data service.

What is the geostationary satellite in the system?

In the universe, there is a location where you can place a satellite in the orbit so that the satellite appears stationary from the ground. What happens here is that the satellite orbits the earth at the same pace as the earth is rotating. It completes the rotation in 24 hours just like earth. These satellites should be located 22,300 miles directly above the earth’s equator, and not anywhere else.

The line of sight

Obstacles like tree or mountain can interfere with a satellite signal transmitted or received. Thus, it is important to make sure that there remains no obstacle between the orbiting satellite and the location of the satellite dish installation. In technical terms, it is called as the line-of-sight to the satellite. Fortunately, you have an easy solution with a Look Angle Calculator to find out if there is any obstacle or the line of sight is clear. All you need is your current address irrespective of your location, the orbiting longitudinal of the satellite you are going to use. Feed these two details and you can have an idea of whether you can enjoy satellite broadband internet service flawlessly or there is an obstruction.

Latency

Latency is the common term in the satellite world, and denotes the time taken by a unit of information to take a round trip back and forth over a satellite connection. Latency can also be called as the Ping Time. Data in the space travels at the speed of light - 186,000 miles per second, and the distance to be covered is 22,300 miles above earth. Data has to travel this distance four times – an end user to satellite, satellite to NOC, NOC to satellite and then satellite to an end user. This sums up a lot of time, called latency that is around 500 millisecond or ½ of a second.

While using satellite broadband internet service, considering this latency time is of utmost importance to meet the requirements of your kind of work.