Satellite A radio relay station in orbit above the earth that receives, amplifies and redirects analog and digital signals contained within a carrier frequency. There are two kinds. The downlink from GEO satellites back to earth can be localized into small areas or cover as much as a third of the earth's surface. They cover small areas, and multiple LEOs are required to maintain constant coverage in one area. The client contains the user interface and may perform some or all of the application processing.
Servers can be high-speed microcomputers, minicomputers or even mainframes.
A database server maintains the databases and processes requests from the client to extract data from or update the database. An application server provides additional business processing for the clients. Routers see the network as network addresses and all the possible paths between them. Routers often serve as an internet backbone, interconnecting all networks in the enterprise. Switched Ethernet An Ethernet network that runs through a high-speed switch.