Spacenet Transparent Data Compression
Spacenet’s Transparent Compression enables VSAT users to make better use of their existing connection—increasing data throughput without requiring more bandwidth.
The technology utilizes an efficient compression algorithm to compress data being sent over the satellite link, significantly increasing the effective speed of the connection. Text-based data is compressed by 40 percent on average, and compression gains of varying levels can also be seen on images, media and other binary data.
Unlike “lossy” algorithms used for compressing audio and video files (which work by reducing detail to conserve file size), Spacenet’s Transparent Compression uses a “lossless” compression algorithm called Lempel-Ziv (LZ). The LZ algorithm identifies and compresses repeated patterns in data, so that file size reduction is achieved without data loss.
The Spacenet Transparent Compression system utilizes Win32 PC software on the client end, which operates in the background and interfaces with the client computer’s TCP/IP stack to perform compression in a way that is invisible to applications and users. On the server end, a Sun Solaris-based server running Spacenet’s Transparent Compression software colocated at the customer’s data center is used to decode the compression.
Testing of the Transparent Compression system shows effective speed/throughput gains of more than 150 percent on upstream data. Lower-speed upstream connections derive particularly significant benefits from the technology, largely due to the fact that the compressed data reduces packet size and improves network utilization. Testing also indicates speed gains of approximately 25 percent on high-bandwidth downstream links.
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