A Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT), is a two-way satellite
ground station with a dish antenna that is smaller than 3 meters
(most VSAT antennas range from 75 cm to 1.2 m). VSAT data rates
typically range from narrowband up to 4 Mbit/s. VSATs access
satellites in geosynchronous orbit to relay data from small
remote earth stations (terminals) to other terminals (in mesh
configurations) or master earth station "hubs" (in star
configurations). VSATs are most commonly used to transmit
narrowband data (point of sale transactions such as credit card,
polling or RFID data; or SCADA), or broadband data (for the
provision of Satellite Internet access to remote locations, VoIP
or video). VSATs are also used for transportable, on-the-move
(with phased-array antennas) or mobile maritime (such as
Inmarsat or BGAN) communications. The first commercial VSATs
were C band (6 GHz) receive-only systems by Equatorial
Communications using spread spectrum technology. More than
30,000 60 cm antenna systems were sold in the early