![]() Latency is also called ‘ping time’.ĭata over satellite travels at the speed of light – 186,000 miles per second. Latency simply refers to how long it takes a single piece of information to make a round trip back and forth over a satellite connection. The one (sometimes) noticeable thing that differentiates satellite service from other land-based ISPs is something called ‘latency’, a term commonly used in the satellite world. Here is the free look angle calculator from Ground Control. Plug these two details in, and the calculator will give you a compass heading of the satellite, and the degrees up from the horizon it is located, and a cool overhead picture of the installation location including a line showing the direction of the satellite. All that’s needed is a current address (anywhere in the world), and the orbital longitude of the satellite (see description of orbital longitude above). Fortunately, finding if there is clear line of sight is is simplified by using a look angle calculator. In the industry, we call this a clear ‘line-of-sight’ to the satellite. It is important that there are no obstacles between the installation location of the satellite dish and the orbiting satellite. Satellite Look AngleĪny obstacle (such as a tree or mountain) will interfere with a satellite signal to a geostationary satellite. They also help in finding obstacles from an installation location and the satellite. Satellite longitudes help installers locate where to point a satellite dish. A satellite orbiting over Malaysia that services Asia and Australia may have the orbital slot of 100.5° east longitude. ![]() A satellite orbiting over the Galapagos Islands that services North and South America may have an orbital slot of 101° west longitude. All orbital ‘slots’ for satellites would be between 0° to 180° in the eastern hemisphere, and 0° to 180° in the western hemisphere. To further confuse things, longitude is divided into two halves: western and eastern hemispheres. If you know the longitude of a satellite, you knows where the satellite is located in the sky because all geostationary satellites are located above the equator (or zero latitude). There are 360 degrees of longitude readings for Earth. Longitude refers to those imaginary long lines that travel down the Earth for global mapping. ![]() Geostationary satellites are only located at 22,300 miles directly above the Earth’s equator and nowhere else.Īll geostationary satellites have a name like ‘Galaxy 18’ or ‘AMC-4’ and they also have a longitude position. The satellite makes a complete orbit around the Earth in 24 hours, or exactly one day. What is happening is that the satellite is actually orbiting the Earth at the same speed the Earth is rotating. There is a location in space where you can place a satellite in orbit so that from the ground, the satellite appears stationary. The slight difference of satellite service is described here. The key to remember is that once the satellite system is configured by the installer, satellite service acts nearly identically as any other ISP and may be configured as such. The NOC itself is connected to the internet (or private network), so all communication made from a satellite dish to the orbiting satellite will flow through the NOC before it reaches the Internet.ĭata communication via satellite is not much different than someone using a land-based data provider, at least from the standpoint of the internet user. The orbiting satellite transmits and receives information to a location on Earth called the network operations centre or NOC (pronounced “knock”). Satellite internet is the ability to transmit and receive data from a relatively small satellite dish on Earth and communicate with an orbiting geostationary satellite 22,300 miles above Earth’s equator.
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