Satellite Technology: Principles and Applications, 3rd Edition

9Networking Concepts

9.1 Introduction

Satellites today provide a wide range of applications and services, which include traditional telephony, radio and television broadcast services, and broadband and internet services. The ultimate objective of satellite networks is to provide these services, which are continuously evolving both in terms of type of services as well as the quality of service, to users irrespective of their geographical location and particularly to those in remote locations that are not conveniently accessible to terrestrial networks. Given the enormity and requirements of satellite applications and services in a modern satellite network, one is likely to find use of a single satellite and multiple satellites with intersatellite links or multi-hop transmission, bench top user terminals and handheld terminals, fixed Earth stations and transportable Earth stations, satellites-only networks and satellite networks integrated with terrestrial networks. With the integration of audio, video and broadband internet services and due to the need to support a wide range of applications and services to users wherever they are, internetworking with terrestrial networks and protocols is also an important part of satellite networks. Some specific aspects of satellite networking such as satellite link designing, satellite communication services, VSAT networks, satellite constellations and so on have been discussed in other chapters. The core topics of satellite networking, ...