How Satellite Internet Works

Satellite Technology

The StarBand satellite Internet system consists of a 24” x 36” satellite dish mounted on or near your home or office (1.2 meter satellite dish in Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands). The dish must have a clear unobstructed view of one of our satellites located 22,300 miles up over the Equator in the southern sky.

Two standard coaxial cables connect the satellite dish to the StarBand satellite modem connected to your computer via an Ethernet connection.

StarBand sends requests to the Internet and receives Internet content via satellite. The satellite communicates with the StarBand hub facility, which has a direct connection to the Internet.

  • One ethernet cable connects the computer and the modem, while two coxial cables connect the modem with the dish. Website requests are made on the computer, get sent to the satellite modem, which in turns sends the request to the dish.
  • The satellite dish mounted on or near your home receives the request from the modem, and relays the request to the satellite.
  • 23,000 miles above the Earth's Equator, one of our satellites receives the request from the satellite dish, and sends it back down to the Earth to our hub.
  • The hub, which manages the bandwith and Internet traffic, receives the request from the satellite, sends the request to the Internet over its physical connection, and awaits a response.
  • The request is returned to the hub, the hub sends the data back to the satellite, and the satellite sends the results back to you.
  • The request is delivered back to the computer and the user can be browsing the web at speeds of up to 1.5 Mbps.

Other Satellite Internet Resources

Wikipedia

Wikipedia has a thorough technical overview of Satellite Internet Access.

How Stuff Works

HowStuffWorks.com provides a basic understanding of How Satellite Internet Operates.

Gilat

Gilat hosts a glossary of satellite Internet terms.