Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Interplanetary Internet (IPN)

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the bright-web-spun-from-the-glory-of-the-sun dept.

Marc Petit-Huguenin writes: "Vinton G. Cerf and others just released an Internet Draft about the Architectural Definition of the Interplanetary Internet (IPN). The first section "Desiderata of Interplanetary Internetworking" is a wonderful text." This is beautiful, both the document itself and the work put into something which, at the present time, has no practical use whatsoever. Bravo... I hope I live to see this deployed.

11 of 102 comments (clear)

  1. Actually this is used today by jandrese · · Score: 4

    This is the same technology (SCPS gateways for instance) that is used to talk to some LEO satellites and the Space Shuttle, where you only have window of a few minutes to transmit whatever data you have.

    Some of the technologies used in this are also applicable to any low bandwidth high latency connection. IP header compression is a prime example of this. Most people on Slashdot probably havn't considered the consequences of using IP over a link with a bandwidth measured in the low double digit bytes per second where return traffic may take several minutes to reach you, but people working with secure communications or low power long distance wireless links sure have.

    One final thing I'm sure will interest many Slashdotters, the SCPS gateway runs on FreeBSD (and many other platforms as well, but it was developed under FreeBSD).

    Down that path lies madness. On the other hand, the road to hell is paved with melting snowballs.

    --

    I read the internet for the articles.
  2. Literature and Common Sense in the same doc! by DG · · Score: 5

    From the RFC:

    Desiderata of Interplanetary Internetworking

    Go thoughtfully in the knowledge that all interplanetary communication derives from the modulation of radiated energy, and sometimes a planet will be between the source and the destination. Therefore rely not on end-to-end connectivity at any time, for the universe does not work that way.

    Neither rely on ample bandwidth, for power is scarce out there and the bit error rates are high. Know too that signal strength drops off by the square of the distance, and there is a lot of distance.

    Consider the preciousness of interplanetary communication links, and restrict access to them with all your heart. Protect also the confidentiality of application data or risk losing your customers.

    Remember always that launch mass costs money. Think not, then, that you may require all the universe to adopt at once the newest technologies. Be backward compatible.

    Never confuse patience with inaction. By waiting for acknowledgement to one message before sending the next, you squander tracking pass time that will never come to you again in this life. Send as much as you can, as early as you can, and meanwhile confidently await responses for as long as they may take to find their way to you.

    Therefore be at peace with physics, and expect not to manage the network in closed control loops -- neither in the limiting of congestion nor in the negotiation of connection parameters nor even in on-demand access to transmission bands. Each node must make its own operating choices in its own understanding, for all the others are too far away to ask. Truly the solar system is a large place and each one of us is on his or her own. Deal with it.

    That's beautiful... it conveys all the important information, but yet still manages to be literate, and even a little bit inspiring.

    Nice to see there are still visionaries in science.


    --
    Want to learn about race cars? Read my Book
    1. Re:Literature and Common Sense in the same doc! by selectspec · · Score: 5

      To bad the satellites dont run in COBOL because you could just compile this excerpt.

      --

      Someone you trust is one of us.

  3. IPN huh? by Luxury+P.+Yacht · · Score: 4

    Does this mean I will one day be able to finger Uranus? Doesn't sound too appealing...

    --
    Bush should have died, not Reagan -- Morrissey
    Morrissey rides a cockhorse -- The Warlock Pinchers
  4. Re:Come on, Give them a lottle credit... by kevinank · · Score: 3

    Yeah, I remember reading about IP/SMTP back when it came out. The ping times are supposed to be 30s or so, but with the IT infrastructure at my company I think they would end up being closer to five minutes or more.

    In any case TCP isn't going to run well over that kind of latency, you'll just fill up the pipe with retransmit requests until the TCP connection times out.

    To really make use of this kind of application you need some protocols that aren't oriented toward interactive latency. IP datagrams over avian carrier are all well and good, but at an hour per packet they had damned well better be carrying complete messages.

    I could see the Palm Pilot application synchronization being done over non-interactive protocols. Store and forward messaging would work fine, and of course the web would be okay if a bit slow (over SMTP.)

    So there are plenty of potential uses, the question is really whether those uses will become prevalent, or the latencies of handheld wireless devices will drop to where they are no longer needed.

    --
    LibBT: BitTorrent for C - small - fast - clean (Now Versio
  5. Wouldn't it be nice.. by meckardt · · Score: 3

    if just once we actually had a plan to implement a system before the system was needed? I expect that it will be another 10-15 years before there will actaully be much demand for this, but once we do start operating out there, its going to turn into an explosion as big as the Internet of the mid-90's.

  6. Re:Slashdottet? by HiQ · · Score: 4

    What's nicer is that maybe in the future we will be able to slashdot whole planets :-)

  7. Store and forward... by YKnot · · Score: 3

    Our approach, which we refer to as bundling, builds a store-and-forward overlay network above the transport layers of underlying networks. Bundling uses many of the techniques of electronic mail, but is directed toward interprocess communication, and is designed to operate in environments that have very long speed-of-light delays.

    Just when you think someone has figured out how to make interplanetary Quake matches possible, they tell me about store and forward...

  8. Insane ping times by KarmaPolice · · Score: 3
    Kinda interesting since our servers at the dorm are called Mars and Venus so ping mars and ping venus actually makes sense to write.

    Just a quick thought:
    Excuse me, miss. Can I borrow your computer? I need to ping Uranus?
    **SMOCK**

  9. Come on, Give them a lottle credit... by hillct · · Score: 3

    It is a well written document, and really, the internet as a whole was once just a bunch of hopes and dreams.

    The RFC process just puts some structure around publishing those hopes and dreams

    --CTH

    --

    --

    --Got Lists? | Top 95 Star Wars Line
  10. uses for IPN by mrericn · · Score: 3
    Does this have no application for the ISS. The ISS seems like it could serve as a wonderful testbed for extra-planetary networking. Sure it's still in orbit, and the distance is almost trivial (in Inter-planetary standards), but Alexander Graham Bell first made a call to another room.

    Here's some interesting info about the use of laptops on the ISS but AFAIK no point of presence on the Internet for the floating condo yet...

    I'm waiting to fork over my 20 million until I can get my /.!