The way a basic Satellite internet connection works
 

When a customer (internet user) requests for some information, say a webpage, the request passes through its phone line and modem to the VSAT terminal (ground station). From here it passes through the satellite dish (which is the VSAT) to the satellite  which requests for this information from the internet via the hub connected to the Internet back bone. Once the information has been gotten from the internet. it then passes back via the same sequence back to the customer.  Connections to the Internet via the internet backbone are usually very fast. Thus most Satellite Service Providers site  their hubs within close proximity to the internet backbone. What these companies do is to have a hub connected to the internet from which ISP's can buy space on  and  supply their customers (internet users) through a ground station (if they don't already have one) connected to their computers directly through modems or via a router in the case of a network.

The Nigerian   Scenario

 What happens in Nigeria is that individuals or companies who want to have access to the internet do so via ISP's which provide them with access to  space on a satellite from which the ISP itself has acquired space.

A basic scenario of internet access in Nigeria via a satellite can be depicted as follows

This depicts a ground station that has 128k  of digital information coming in and 64K going out. Because of the high cost of transmitting data, most companies have more incoming signals than outgoing ones.

Presently, there are very few ISP's in Nigeria Like Nitel and Skannet which actually have hubs connected to the internet backbone.  However, there are numerous  options available to internet users wanting internet access and many ways in which satellite technologies can be manipulated to provide them this service. Given the desire for maximal utility and efficiency, internet users must look critically at issues such as; the nature of services that will be rendered, the reliability, the cost, the amount of bandwidth that will be available to them, the speed of the connection etc.

Some Options Available to Nigerian Universities and Companies Desiring Internet Access

Option 1
Given the existence of Nitel, a university or company can just decide to pay Nitel for some of their bandwidth and via either a telephone line, some cables or a wireless connection, hook up to the internet this way.  Similarly another option available to internet users is the acquisiton of bandwidth from another company or organization that has a satellite dish whose capacity is not being fully utilized. For example, in the case of the University of Jos  with a VSAT connection of 128K but which is capable of about 2MB, it is possible for an organization to pay the University  to acquire more bandwidth from its Integrator  (BT) and sell a portion of it to them. Once a company or organization has a satellite it is possible for it to spread out its services to others through selling out parts of its own bandwidth.

Option 2
Basically Other  than renting space of another company the  other general possibility is the aquistion of a satellite. This in itself can also be manipulated into different scenarios

Option 2A:
A basic option available to an internet user could be to make use of a receive only satellite system (which only receives signals but doesn't transmit)

In this case the satellite only receives data from the internet via the satellite but doesn't transmit any data to it. Thus in this case the internet user can

Option 2B:
Another option  could comprise of  a basic 2 way satellite system

 

This consists  of a ground station and a router and some space on a hub connected to the internet back bone.

From the diagram, you may have noticed the difference in the amount of incoming and outgoing data. We can see that the incoming data is  much more than the outgoing. As explained earlier, this is normally because of the high cost of transmitting data via satellites. Thus, another option to increase amount of bandwidth accessible to an internet user presents itself:

Option 2C: This is a hybrid system which combines the use of a VSAT and ISP connection

     This option involves the use of  a low cost  receive only satellite  satellite system on one hand and a connection to an ISP via a modem connection. In this case the internet user can increase the amount of his incoming bandwidth via the VSAT and still have some means ( a 32K link) for outgoing signals.

These are just 3 possible options which can still be further manipulated to give us many more possibilities. However, the key issue to be addressed is the efficiency both in terms of cost effectiveness and reliability.