Not active or energized, i.e., not electrically powered. A reflective satellite, for example, serves only to reflect a signal, rather than act on it to respond to requests for transponder access, amplify the received signal, detect and perhaps correct for errors in the data, resynchronize the signal, shift between uplink and downlink frequencies, or retransmit the signal.A passive optical network (PON) involves passive splitters that only split an incoming signal into two or more outgoing signals at proportionately lower signal strength.