Rural Mobile Telephony: A VSAT (Satellite) based Approach
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Trans Tech Publications, Switzerland
Abstract
Description
This work presents a VSAT based approach for extending mobile communication access
to rural communities in developing countries using VSAT and satellite technology. The rural areas
are clustered into village community cells with each cluster being served by a non regenerative
bidirectional repeater system. The telecommunication technology of choice is the GSM standard.
Traffic from the rural areas is collated together at the access point which serves as an interface
between the village community cells and the satellite. The access points perform a frequency
translation moving the signal from the GSM band to the satellite band at the transmitter and vice
versa at the receiver. The system maximizes the advantage of satellite communication technology
over other types in linking remote areas to urban centers that are geographically far apart. The
satellite then links the village cell to the operator’s network via a dedicated BTS in the urban area.
The system has the advantage of being modular, scalable and solar powered due to the low traffic
from rural areas.
Keywords
TK Electrical engineering. Electronics Nuclear engineering