What are the different VSAT transmission methods?
There are three basic VSAT transmission types: TDMA, time-division multiple access; DAMA, demand-assigned multiple access; and SPCP/MCPC, single/multiple channels per carrier. Interactive VSAT systems come in two main network topologies – star and mesh. The former tends to be based either on a shared access scheme (TDM/TDMA), which is designed to support transactional processing applications, or on a dedicated link (the satellite equivalent to a leased line). The latter usually uses links which are set-up and torn-down on request to establish a direct link between two sites on a demand assigned basis. These mesh systems were initially designed to support corporate and public network telephony links, but are being increasingly used to serve high data rate services, such as file downloads, at rates of 64 kbps or greater.
