Found out that the company I work with is converting from VSAT to a Frame Relay/Router platform because the Satellite Network Control Processor is non-Y2K compliant.

What is VSAT and what would be involved in converting a large number of sites to a router platform? Is VSAT a generic term for this system, or is it a specific product? If it is a specific product, how large is their customer base?

Any claification would be appreciated.

R.

-- Roland (nottelling@nowhere.com), May 10, 1999

Answers

VSAT is satellite communications. They are not Y2K ready (at least the ones that Hughes makes isn't). Most companies are converting VSAT to Frame.

b

-- b (b@b.b), May 10, 1999.

It would be interesting to know which industries, which satellites, which companies are using which control process.

But. I suppose we will find out next January and February, won't we.

-- Robert A. Cook, PE (Kennesaw, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), May 10, 1999.

VSAT is Very Small Aperture Terminal. It's basically a satelite terminal with a small antenna. Used in a lot of government and corporate networks to provide service into areas without a lot of local communications infrastructure, to remote sites, etc. Also used where there was a need for redundant communications. It is not the satellite.

You don't reall switch from VSAT to frame relay/router. A VSAT terminal is one of two ends of a communications link with a satellite in the middle. Its part of a transmission system. Frame relay switches and routers are switches which connect to transmission systems. They work best with more than one physical transmission path.

Usually, with frame relay switches and routers, you lease bandwidth or frame relay/router service from a common carrier.

Here's where it gets interesting. If you have a private network, and you want to identify Y2K issues, you take specific links and look at every piece of equipment on the path and determine if it is Y2K compliant or not. You can do this with a private VSAT network. It becomes very hard, however, if you have a frame relay switch/router environment and you lease bandwidth from a common carrier or lease frame relay or router service from a common carrier, to do path analysis. The paths change rapidly. If you can't identify the paths, you can't identify the equipment in the paths. If you can't identify the equipment, you can't do Y2K analysis of the equipment. I've seen many organizations faced with this problem, unable to determine whether they would work.

This is a little simplistic, some common carriers like AT&T are spending huge sums to get their hands around their problems, but even their communicationbs sometimes rides over others' transmission systems.

-- noel (ngoyette@csc.com), May 10, 1999.

This isn't my area of expertise, but I have been told by some people I respect that routers manufactured prior to mid 97 (especially Cisco) are non compliant. If true, all those using "compliant" midis w/mainframes and those dependent on client-server are in for a big surprise.

-- RD. ->H (drherr@erols.com), May 10, 1999.