Editing Very-small-aperture terminal (section)

{{Short description|Satellite communication system with small dish antenna}}
{{redirect|VSAT|the internet company that trades under this ticker symbol|Viasat (American company)}}
[[File:Parabolic-antenna-SHF-updown.jpg|thumb|A 2.5 m [[Parabolic antenna|parabolic]] [[Satellite dish|dish]] antenna for bidirectional [[satellite Internet access]] ]]

A '''very-small-aperture terminal''' ('''VSAT''')<ref name="YczZO">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MWuXmf4V4NwC&q=%22Very-small-aperture+terminal%22|title=VSATs: Very Small Aperture Terminals|last=Everett|first=John|date=1992|publisher=IET|isbn=9780863412004|language=en}}</ref> is a two-way [[satellite]] [[ground station]] with a [[satellite dish|dish antenna]] that is smaller than 3.8 meters. The majority of VSAT antennas range from 75&nbsp;cm to 1.2 m. [[Bit rate]]s, in most cases, range from 4&nbsp;kbit/s to 16&nbsp;Mbit/s. VSATs access satellites in [[geosynchronous orbit]] or [[geostationary orbit]] to relay data from small remote Earth stations (terminals) to other terminals (in [[mesh networking|mesh]] [[Network topology|topology]]) or master Earth station "hubs" (in [[star topology]]).

VSATs are used to transmit [[narrowband]] data (e.g., [[point-of-sale]] transactions using credit cards, 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 (utilising [[phased array]] antennas) or mobile [[ocean|maritime]] communications.