SCADA      

The term SCADA stands for Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition. A SCADA system is a common process automation system which is used to gather data from sensors and instruments located at remote sites and to transmit and display this data at a central site for either control or monitoring purposes. The collected data is usually viewed on one or more SCADA Host computers located at the central or master site.

SCADA systems using satellite are often implemented to monitor and manage equipment and data in industries such as oil and gas refining, energy, or seismology, to name a few.  Common analog signals that SCADA systems monitor and control are levels, temperatures, pressures, flow rate and motor speed. Typical digital signals to monitor and control are level switches, pressure switches, generator status, relays & motors.

Often times, the need for SCADA solutions are in remote areas with little or no connectivity options, making satellite an ideal (and often times only) solution for the application. Also, because SCADA solutions typically send and receive small amounts of data, the bandwidth link does not need to be very large. FTI's answer for SCADA applications typically include: Affordable hardware, Custom bandwidth link, Optional IP Address, Installation Services, & Connection support.

Downloads:

iDirect Technical Brief-SCADA (pdf)

SCPC      

SCPC (Single Channel per Carrier) is a satellite transmission system with a separate carrier for each channel as opposed to frequency or time division multiplexing- including DVB-which contains many channels in a single carrier. The primary advantage of SCPC is the architecture which allows full connectivity between the remote and the hub station.

SCPC satellite backbone connectivity provides constant dedicated communications to deliver one way, full duplex or asymetrical service in point to point, point to multi-point, star, mesh, or hybrid network configurations.

In these designs, an SCPC network can deliver high bandwidth to easily support the most demanding service applications, such as, video-conferencing, voice communications, and data transmission. Dedicated bandwidth connectivity is offered on SCPC, iSCPC, DVB and DVP-S2 platforms. This versatility has created a greater demand for dedicated satellite communications worldwide among medium to large ISPs, large businesses, call centers and commercial operations utilizing high data rate or real time traffic intensive applications.

Note:
If you are a small ISP operator (less than 2,000 subscribers), there is a hybrid connectivity solution available for you called ... iDirect Two Way Satellite Internet.  This hybrid service performs comparably to SCPC service, and ... it can
SAVE you up to 50% in operating costs!   Learn more about it here.

A varied subscriber base for dedicated communications links includes medical communities, hotel and hospitality industries, governments, military operations, educational institutions, as well as, corporate and enterprise networks around the globe.

VPN      

An end-to-end VPN solution provides maximum security for your connection. It protects data both between the customer's remote and the teleport (via the satellite) as well as between the teleport and the customer's headquarters. While any VPN connection over satellite will experience some performance degradation, this solution provides the best performance in a true end-to-end VPN solution.

Many companies today are in need of VPN applications over their broadband links, and satellite links are no exception. The challenge for network engineers using satellite VSAT technology for VPN applications is to find technology that optimizes the satellite link for effective throughput of data, because the inherent architecture of satellite networks can cause significant and unavoidable end-to-end propagation delays ranging between 350 and 500 milliseconds (otherwise known as "latency") that can negatively impact network performance.

More specifically, latency is the time delay (measured in milliseconds) in the round trip data transmission from the earth station to the satellite and back. Given that the GEO satellites used for satellite Internet services are approximately 22,000 miles above the equator, there is generally a 350 to 500 msec data transmission delay, which in turn can have a negative effect on certain types of applications, including VPN.

Nevertheless, for those clients who want to leverage existing networks and capital investments while extending the reach of their corporate infrastructure to remote workers with a VPN connection, there is a solution with FTI's satellite VSAT services.