Satellite Networking Solutions – iDirect

Creating a new, or expanding an existing network to include satellite is fairly straight forward, but never the same for any organization. Our sales engineers are here to help answer questions as well as create different quotes to compare your satellite networking options.

Satellite Networking Options

Standard Shared Services

Our standard shared service to the Internet uses a Star Topology TDM/MF-TDMA iDirect optimized network. Our standard services are global and have contention ratios below 20:1.

Dedicated SCPC Unlimited Channels

Ground Control’s Single Channel Per Carrier (SCPC) service offers a true unshared dedicated channel of up to 20 Mbps download by 7 Mbps upload. This service provides full speed connectivity at all times with absolutely no restrictions. More information on dedicated networks.

Hybrid Satellite Connections – Shared and Dedicated

Many organizations choose to marry both dedicated and shared satellite service over the same satellite dish connection to create a low- or medium-speed dedicated channel for critical communication (such as VoIP, or VPN encryption) with a high-speed, low-cost shared service to the internet for non-critical connectivity.

The dedicated channel can be as small as 20 x 20Kbps and as fast at 20Mbps down x 7 Mbps up depending on client requirements, radio size, dish size, and location. Routing and QoS plans are created so that specific traffic is limited to the shared or dedicated channels.

The shared internet service can be customized as well, with speeds of up to 5Mbps x 2Mbps.

This hybrid dedicated service will reduce bottlenecks for critical data over the satellite leg portion of the transmission to the internet backbone. VoIP calls are guaranteed not to drop off and VPN performance is improved. Many of our clients have found a small dedicated channel is a preferred solution to fix a variety of communication issues over satellite.

For those that wish only to have a dedicated satellite service, Ground Control offers SCPS (single channel per carrier) service for speeds of 20Mbps down and 7Mbps up. Information on SCPS dedicated service. Please speak with a Ground Control sales representative for more information.

Leased-Line, MPLS Provisioning

A Leased-Line is an open unshared terrestrial channel between our satellite teleport and your organization’s primary network that does not touch the public network. A Leased-Line can be used for dedicated SCPC service, standard shared Internet service, or hybrid service. Clients often use a Leased-Line for increased security, as well as improve reliability and performance since the channel is open with no restrictions. A leased-line cost is dependent on many factors, but a high-cost would be $1000 per month to most locations in the U.S. for a 1.5 Mbps line. MPLS routing is also available.

Point-to-Point Private Satellite Networking

A Point-to-Point network consists of a satellite dish at one location connecting with a satellite dish (or dishes) at other locations that communicate through our satellite teleport. This topology avoids any terrestrial link costs (such as a leased-line from an organization’s network to our teleport) making it viable low-cost private satellite network. While Point-to-Point avoids touching the public network, it will double the latency because data is required to travel twice to the orbiting satellite (i.e., Point 1 to satellite to NOC Teleport to satellite to point 2… as opposed to Point 1 to satellite to NOC Teleport to Point 2. Some satellites do have the ability to perform routing in space independent of the NOC, in which case, the latency would not be doubled).

VPN Over Satellite

Many organizations choose to run a VPN over our standard shared iDirect service. However, not all VPN equipment will work well with the inherent latency of satellite, and we recommend speaking with our sales engineers to determine your VPN compatibility over satellite. Ground Control’s network does have very low latency (500 to 650 milliseconds), and the bit error rate is better than 10-9, which is defined as a clear channel.

Service Portal – Free for all Ground Control Subscribers

From any connected browser, track usage of all owned VSAT equipment in the field with detailed reports on status, bandwidth usage, modem settings, current activity, current mapped location, communication errors, connection quality graph, power level graph, usage, signal quality, and many other items. This service is offered at no charge for Ground Control subscribers.

Equipment Co-Location At Teleport

Many of our clients employ VPNs or specialty applications running on their hardware co-located at our several teleports throughout the world. Locating a VPN at the teleport can increase performance since VPN traffic does not travel over the satellite leg portion of the link. All of our co-location facilities are hardened, environmentally controlled, and fully protected against fires and other disasters.