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Old 12th Apr 2014, 02:33
  #9803 (permalink)  
cribbagepeg
 
Join Date: Jun 2009
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Would a satcom person please step in? The raw bandwidth of a sat link is misleading. Individual A/C must either be polled (asked to transmit) or must speak up in the hope that data can be communicated. Simultaneous asychronous speakups - "collisions" - jam things up and the various originators must be separated in time, so they all get their data packets through. Because of transit time to/from the satellite(s), there is considerable latency involved, and at peak traffic times, actual throughput can be reduced to a fraction of the raw capacity of the sat channel. A small fraction.

This was covered extensively in the AF447 saga, and should be summarized here and "stickified" to reduce misconceptions. At least for the few that will read it before posing novice questions or "solutions".
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