HIGH‐THROUGHPUT SATELLITES

This chapter addresses high‐throughput satellites (HTS) in geosynchronous orbit. Satellite constellations in lower orbits also achieve a high system‐wide throughput since they need many satellites to cover the service area. The really high throughputs are of interest for essentially one customer segment: the consumer residential market for Internet access. Bandwidth is an essential resource for HTS systems. The gateway links need more bandwidth than the user links since one gateway station should serve many beams. All current residential Internet systems use a bent‐pipe architecture for the satellite payload. The chapter addresses issues specific to HTS and certain details related to various satellites. All operational HTS use solid parabolic dish antennas and a single feed per beam. The HTS systems offer services other than residential Internet access: enterprise services, in‐flight services to commercial airplanes, maritime communications, and government and defense communication.