Rain Fade Redundancy

A lot of satellite owners have experienced this: you’re relaxing, watching television, when outside your window an ominous shadow falls over your house. Rain begins to lightly tap on your windows before turning into a torrential downpour. Suddenly the picture on your television begins to scramble to the point of being unwatchable. This is called “rain fade”.

Rain fade can occur on two way satellite services when the satellite signal is disrupted by rain, snow or even heavy cloud cover. While this is only a temporary condition, it seems to occur in the most inopportune times - while you are watching your favorite show or downloading important files. Because of rain fade, satellite has been considered disadvantageous to cable for television or the Internet. But what about when cable or DSL is not an option?

Broadband in a Box has the answer to this issue. By deploying a system known as a terrestrial/satellite hybrid network, Broadband in a Box is able to deliver broadband speed downloads without the interruption of annoying rain fade. Because a two-way home satellite Internet dish system does not have the power (only 2 watts) to send an unhindered signal in bad weather. Broadband in a Box sends the outbound request (uploads) along more reliable telephone lines. The data you requested is then beamed to the orbiting satellite from an 18-foot diameter, 200-watt commercial dish, which is 100x more powerful than the 2.5-foot, 2-watt consumer dish. Internet. The satellite then sends (downloads) web content to the receiving home dish (about 30″ wide) at broadband speed. In the rare case there is rain fade, bidirectional dial-up is used to ensure redundant connectivity.

Because uploads are generally very small packets of data, this entire process takes less than one second. The satellite is powered by rechargeable solar fuel cells that convert high intensity sunlight into electrical energy. Blanketing the entire United States, the satellite relays a powerful, uninterrupted beam back to earth. Such a beam is not easily scattered by rain fall, which allows for continual satellite internet service without rain fade.