ViaSat-1 is a HTS (=High Throughput Satellite) owned by Viasat. Launched in 2011, it is the world’s highest capacity communications satellite with a total capacity in excess of 140 Gbit/s, more than all the satellites covering North America combined, at the time of its launch. The significant increase in capacity is achieved by a high level frequency re-use and spot beam technology which enables frequency re-use across multiple narrowly focused spot beams (usually in the order of 100s of kilometers).
A fundamental difference to existing satellites is also the fact that HTS are linked to ground infrastructure through a feeder link using a regional spot beam dictating the location of the required teleports, whereas ground stations for traditional satellites have much wider footprints. Viasat-2, launched in 2017, covers the Atlantic Ocean between North America and Europe. The antenna system offers exceptional broadband support to deliver high-speed WiFi connections.
Key functionalities:
- Broadband Ka-band feed combiner 17.7 to 20.2 GHz / 27.0 to 30.0 GHz
- Low insertion loss (=feed combiner 0.4 dB)
- Dual circular polarization
- High polarization selectivity – axial ratio of max. 0.5 dB over the complete frequency range
- TE21 monopulse tracking
- Feeds for different antenna sizes: Viasat HTS, O3B, governmental applications
Project partner:
Viasat Inc.
