Data Recovery & Computers

Satellite Internet Access has grown by leaps and bounds over the past few years. As the cost of satellite bandwidth decreased, more businesses threw their hats in the ring and dramatically reduced the fees paid by consumers. It is clear that satellite access isn’t the mystery it once was, and customers are ready to buy.

With more surfers riding satellite, the more interest hackers have in the signals bouncing around in space. Security concerns over satellite internet are growing. Encryption is a primary security tool used by internet providers, and users want to know if it’s enough to defend their data. To answer that we need to follow the path our data is taking into space.

Satellite Internet has a data transfer problem unique to the Internet Service Provider industry. Packets sent from a user to the Internet must first be sent into orbital space. This is a long way to travel, and since each packet must be acknowledged when it is received to allow more packets to be sent you essentially have a 45000 mile round trip. It could take anywhere from 4-9 seconds to travel this distance, which for a computer is an eternity. The problem with the latency here is that TCP/IP, or Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol, requires an answer to each packet it sends within a certain timeframe. The longer it takes to receive an answer, the less bandwidth the protocol allows for the transmission, freeing up room for other packets. This will eventually lead to a massive reduction in speed or a termination of the packet stream. With current latency as it stands in satellite internet connections, almost every data request would time out. So how are people currently using satellite access, and what does this have to do with encryption? Here we go.

Transmission Control Protocol Acceleration (TCPA) is one of the reasons current satellite internet users can actually use the Internet. This is a protocol that uses packet management and compression to speed up delivery and reception of information that is sent over a satellite connection. TCPA is often used in conjunction with a process called pre-fetching. Pre-fetching separates objects from code, such as pictures from a web page, and requests the objects first. This allows more time to download the objects, as they take more time to retrieve and require more bandwidth. Combined these solutions decrease satellite latency to the point where TCP/IP won’t cause an adverse effect on the user’s bandwidth. And with that we can talk about Encryption.

TCPA can’t handle encrypted packets. Only clean packets can be managed and compressed in a way to be sent via satellite transmission and not time out. This causes a problem as most users don’t want to send unsecured data of any kind across the Internet, much less personal or financial information required to shop online. This is a big problem.

A common solution to this issue is intermittent encryption. Data is encrypted at the user, transferred to a hub on the provider’s network and decrypted, then accelerated via TCPA and transmitted to a satellite. This makes the connection much safer than no encryption, but it does cause issues with secured networks and VPNs.

Many firms are currently working to streamline this process, but encryption standards won’t work with current accelerator technology so one or both will need to be developed further.

Jon Norwood is a founder and managing partner of the directory Satellite Internet, a site dedicated to providing information on Internet Service Providers, as well as guides on how to best choose a service.

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com - Satellite Internet Encryption