{"id":4235,"date":"2014-06-12T15:25:35","date_gmt":"2014-06-12T15:25:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/downlink\/"},"modified":"2014-06-12T15:25:35","modified_gmt":"2014-06-12T15:25:35","slug":"downlink","status":"publish","type":"definition","link":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/5055\/downlink","title":{"rendered":"Downlink"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span id=\"what_does_downlink_mean\">What Does Downlink Mean?<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Downlink is a telecommunication term pertaining to data which is sent out or downwards from a higher level or portion of a network.<\/p>\n<p> Traditionally, it refers to a satellite communications process where data is sent from a satellite down to an earthbound terminal or device, hence the word &quot;down.&quot; It is also used in other fields of networking like cellular and computer networking, where it is used in a similar manner but may or may not involve the directional meaning of up or down. \n<\/p>\n<h2><span id=\"techopedia_explains_downlink\">Techopedia Explains Downlink<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>In satellite communications, downlink simply refers to the process when a satellite beams down information toward earthbound terminals or devices. The opposite of this is uplink, where the satellite receives data from an earthbound terminal.<\/p>\n<p> In cellular networking, downlink can be seen from the user perspective as receiving some sort of message or data. A cellular device or phone receives direct communication from a cellular base station. An example of this is receiving a text message or an image from someone\u2014that message is received the through a downlink communication process.<\/p>\n<p> The term is used in the same way in computer networking. Edge terminals or nodes receive data from the network core or from higher-level network nodes such as routers and servers, and is commonly known as downloading. Therefore, the downloading of images and videos is done through the downlink process. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What Does Downlink Mean? Downlink is a telecommunication term pertaining to data which is sent out or downwards from a higher level or portion of a network. Traditionally, it refers to a satellite communications process where data is sent from a satellite down to an earthbound terminal or device, hence the word &quot;down.&quot; It is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7813,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"definitioncat":[219,220],"class_list":["post-4235","definition","type-definition","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","definitioncat-networks","definitioncat-wireless-and-mobile"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.2 (Yoast SEO v24.5) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>What is Downlink? - Definition from Techopedia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This definition explains the meaning of Downlink and why it matters.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Downlink\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This definition explains the meaning of Downlink and why it matters.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/5055\/downlink\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Techopedia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/techopedia\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@techopedia\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/5055\/downlink#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/5055\/downlink\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Margaret Rouse\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#\/schema\/person\/f5dd538e31ee352d105b8af36c4268a5\"},\"headline\":\"Downlink\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-06-12T15:25:35+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/5055\/downlink\"},\"wordCount\":235,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#organization\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/5055\/downlink#respond\"]}],\"articleSection\":\"\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/5055\/downlink\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/5055\/downlink\",\"name\":\"What is Downlink? 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