Photo: Integrasys

[Via Satellite 02-18-2016] Integrasys has released a new automated Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) maintenance tool called Always Up Satellite Terminal (Alusat), which combines traditional equipment management with spectrum monitoring and measurement to accurately derive a remote terminal’s Radio Frequency (RF) status and pinpoint terminals that are not functioning properly.

The tool is designed to improve maintenance, as VSATs often operate in remote, difficult to reach areas. Alusat can address VSATs that experienced misalignment during installation or from adverse weather, which can cause problems for an entire network. In certain conditions, Alusat can even recover out-of-service or service-degraded terminals.

“Alusat allows a virtual visit to every site on the network, reducing or even eliminating the need for a physical presence at certain sites. Alusat also allows the consistent monitoring of a VSAT site after installation to ensure optimization of operation and the minimization of costs caused by service failures,” said Juan Martinez, technical director at Integrasys.

Alusat reduces the need to deploy personnel to individual sites and minimizes maintenance time and effort, freeing up personnel and improving network efficiency. Operators can determine the different thresholds for Rx and Tx and the actions to be taken automatically by the system in different circumstances to rectify problems. Alusat displays High Throughput Satellite (HTS) footprints and calculates link thresholds, then checks all of the terminals in the targeted VSAT community, analyzing the Rx and Tx measured values of co-polar power, cross-polar isolation, adjacent satellite interference and 1dB compression point to detect failures and raise any necessary alarms. This technology is important for networks with adaptive power adjustment capability, as it is able to calibrate the saturation point for each remote, maximizing the overall network performance. This is fully automated from the Network Operations Center (NOC).