What is FTP?

The internet File Transfer Protocol (FTP), defined by RFC 959, is the way of sending and receiving data files on the internet and on many private TCP networks. When you transfer a file using FTP you use a program on your local computer called an FTP client and a program on the remote computer called an FTP server.

Usually the user transferring a file needs authority to login and access files on the remote system. The common facility known as anonymous FTP actually works via a special type of public guest account implemented on the remote system.

FTP Over Satellite

FTP over Satellite uses a star network where each user terminal inter-connects via satellite with a hub Station to gain access to a wide variety of multimedia services. The communication between the hub Station and the user terminal is done solely through satellite links, a Return Link (from the user terminal to the hub) and a Forward Link (from the hub to the user terminal).

FTP uses the TCP/IP protocol. TCP/IP is a connection oriented protocol that incorporates a requestresponse cycle which the performance may be reduced over long satellite delay. Performance Enhancement Proxy (PEP) has to be implemented to improve the performance of TCP/IP protocol and then the FTP performance.