Some assets sit so far off the grid that even cellular does not reach - deep in the backcountry, on the water, or in remote basins with no towers. For those, the link back to SCADA rides a satellite. This guide explains what satellite telemetry is, the GEO versus LEO trade-off, and where it fits in oil and gas.
Satellite Telemetry in one line: Satellite telemetry is the transmission of field measurements to a central SCADA system over a satellite link, used where cellular, radio, or wired connectivity is unavailable - typically via a ground terminal that talks to orbiting satellites and back down to a teleport connected to the internet.
At the site, a satellite terminal - a small dish or a flat-panel antenna - modulates the RTU or flow computer's data onto an uplink to a satellite. The satellite relays the signal down to a ground station (a teleport), which routes it onto the internet and to the SCADA host. Return traffic follows the reverse path. The whole link behaves like an IP connection, so the same Modbus, DNP3, or MQTT data that would ride cellular can ride satellite instead.
The defining constraint is orbit. Geostationary (GEO) satellites sit about 35,786 km up, so a round trip imposes roughly half a second of latency no matter how fast the link. Low-Earth-orbit (LEO) constellations fly a few hundred kilometers up, cutting latency to tens of milliseconds and improving throughput, at the cost of needing many satellites and a terminal that tracks them.
Satellite is the backhaul of last resort - and for genuinely remote wells, offshore platforms, and pipeline segments with no cellular, it is often the only option. Because GEO latency is high and data is metered, engineers design these sites to be frugal: report by exception, poll infrequently, and keep payloads small. Store-and-forward at the RTU means nothing is lost when the link is briefly unavailable.
The rise of LEO services has changed the economics, making higher-bandwidth, lower-latency satellite practical at more sites and even usable as a failover behind cellular. Whichever satellite path a site uses, a cloud SCADA like Merobix simply reads the device at the far end once the IP link is up, treating the satellite hop as transport.
On geostationary (GEO) satellites the signal travels roughly 35,786 km up and the same distance down each way, adding around half a second of round-trip delay regardless of link speed. Low-Earth-orbit (LEO) constellations orbit far closer, cutting latency to tens of milliseconds.
Use satellite when a site has no reliable cellular coverage - remote basins, offshore, or wilderness pipeline segments - or as a failover behind a cellular link. Cellular is usually cheaper and lower-latency where towers reach the site.
It can slow it, but well-designed telemetry copes. Report-by-exception, longer poll intervals, small payloads, and store-and-forward buffering at the RTU keep a high-latency satellite link usable for monitoring, even if it is not suited to fast closed-loop control.
This page references the protocol specifications published by the organizations below. Editions, product capabilities, and documentation change over time - confirm current requirements and specifications directly with the source.
Last reviewed: July 27, 2026. Merobix is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by these organizations; their names are used only to identify the standards and products discussed.
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