A communication connection from a satellite, aircraft, or high position down to a receiver station on the ground; the act of transmitting data downward.
Compound of 'down' and 'link' (from Old Norse 'hlenkr', meaning chain), created in the 20th century with the rise of satellite and wireless technology to describe directional data transmission.
Space-age technology created new words—'downlink' and 'uplink' mirror the direction of data flow, showing how English adapts by recycling spatial metaphors for invisible electronic phenomena!
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