Method and system for asymmetric satellite communications for local area networks

摘要

A method and system for providing high-speed, satellite-based information delivery is described. Improved communication channel efficiency is accomplished by employing an asymmetric data flow. The high bandwidth channel capacity of digital satellite systems is used for the download of large volumes of data. While relatively low speed communication channels are used for upstream data requests. The use of separate channels for upstream data and downloaded data provides an increased efficiency of use for typical internet and other electronic information service subscribers. A typical user in such systems generally makes relatively short information requests. These requests are then followed by large amounts of information being transferred to the user's computer in response to the request. The volume of data being downloaded often causes a capacity overload of typically used land lines. This invention solves this problem, without becoming prohibitively expensive, by employing digital satellite dish receivers to receive the high volume of downloaded data and using the relatively low speed communication channels low volume upstream requests. Moreover, this invention is designed to interface with all common communication devices as well as being designed to operate on and with all common computing platforms.