Satellite communication on the Internet: its history and the technology

Abstract

This paper describes the history of satellite communication technology used on the Internet. Satellite links have been used on the Internet since the 1970s. In the early stages of the Internet, satellite links were used to connect one node to another. It was called a point-to-point connection. Several communication techniques and network topologies have been developed and deployed. This paper describes the history of satellite communication on the Internet. Types of networks are then summarized from a network topology point of view. Future directions in the development of communication satellite technology are described.