Satellite Internet Service
How DIRECWAY Works

Satellite communication systems differ from terrestrial systems in one obvious but important way - the transmitter is moved from the ground to the sky. Because a satellite can "see" about one-third of the Earth's surface from its position in space, it is able to serve a very large geographical area. This leads to a number of advantages:

- As little as three satellites can cover almost the whole of the Earth's surface, with the exclusion of the sparsely populated polar regions. To achieve the same coverage by terrestrial means would require a very large and expensive network of ground-based transmitters.

- Services can be quickly introduced, since coverage is available for everyone from day one. There is no need for a phased introduction of ground-based transmissions with a simple antenna, those located even in the most remote locations can still enjoy the same level of service as someone living in the center of a major city.

- Satellites naturally span national boundaries, providing numerous possibilities for truly international services.

Direcway provides one of the fastest Internet connectivity available nationwide. For downloading from the Internet, a DIRECWAY system is capable of receiving content distribution or streaming video at bit rates up to 1 MBps. For uploading to the Internet, a satellite return channel provides upload speeds up to 128 kbps.

When DIRECWAY is configured with a satellite return, it uses the ITU (Indoor Transmit Unit) to send data up to the satellite, which in turn sends the data to the Hughes Network Operations Center (NOC). The NOC forwards the request to the Internet, where the data is routed to its final destination.

Data returning from the Internet to the PC is routed to the NOC, where it is sent up to the satellite. The DIRECWAY system's IRU (Indoor Receive Unit) receives and decodes the high-speed data, then presents the data to the user.

Indoor Equipment

The IRU is a DVB-compliant satellite adapter that can be used alone, in the receive-only/dial-up return configuration or together with the ITU for satellite return. When used with a modem or existing network connection, the receive-only configuration can provide hybrid Internet access, where packets travel to the Internet via terrestrial routes and return to the PC via the satellite.


The ITU adds transmit capability to an IRU. If an ITU is installed and configured, the user can select the satellite instead of the modem as the outbound (upload) route. When the ITU is available and the user selects this option, the system essentially is "always on." This means the user never has to wait for the PC to connect.

Outdoor Equipment

The DIRECWAY antenna is equipped with:

An LNB to receive data from the satellite
A radio unit to transmit data to the satellite (for satellite return)

Two RG-6 coaxial cables connect the outdoor equipment to the indoor equipment.


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Equipment Details

The DIRECWAY DW4000 systems consist of a oval satellite antenna, matching integrated outdoor electronics, and the indoor units (see below for further descriptions).

Indoor Equipment

The indoor equipment consists of one or two USB satellite adapters:

* ITU (Indoor Transmit Unit, Model DW4000 only)
* IRU (Indoor Receive Unit, Models DW3000/4000).

The DW4000 indoor equipment package is shown in Figure 1. Include are the ITU, IRU, power supply, USB cable, and ITU-IRU interconnection cable.

The IRU is a DVB compliant satellite adapter that can be used alone, in the one-way configuration, or together with the ITU for two-way operation.

The DIRECWAY ITU is designed to be an add-on capability to a standard receive-only DIRECWAY IRU. When the ITU is installed and configured, the user will have the ability to select the satellite instead of the modem as the outbound route. When this option is selected and the ITU is available, the system is essentially "always on". This means you never have to wait for your PC to connect, or worry about ISP busy signals. And because the ITU is connected to the IRU through the ITU-IRU interconnection cable, only one USB port on your PC is required to operate the DIRECWAY indoor equipment.

Outdoor Equipment

The DIRECWAY antenna is equipped with the following:

* A single LNB to receive DIRECWAY data from the satellite (Models DW3000/4000)
* A radio unit to transmit DIRECWAY data to the satellite (Model DW4000 only).

In addition each DIRECWAY system can be optionally equipped with an additional dual- LNB to receive DIRECTV using the same antenna. This configuration is called DirecDUO.

Figure 2 shows the DIRECWAY antenna configured without the DirecDUO option.

The outdoor equipment is connected by two RG-6 coaxial cables to the indoor equipment.

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