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First Ethernet Switch In Space
Rebecca will you marry me? writes "The ESA's Columbus laboratory module was added to the International Space Station in February, but Hewlett-Packard has only now chosen to reveal that the LAN onboard Columbus uses a ProCurve 2524 switch." HP admits it was the "most unusual and demanding" project ProCurve has done yet.
From TFA: "Two redundant LAN switches, developed by the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS) Astrium, already operate in the ISS network core and now have been joined by HP's ProCurve 2524 switch"
;)
I sent this in an e-mail to Taco when the article was still in the 'mysterious future' but that message must have been stopped by his spam filter or something.
Yeah yeah, I must be new here
they aren't using Linksys routers as well. Password: defaultshuttle
Is there some reason why a router in orbit would behave differently in any way from a router sitting in a rack in the server room? (Other than floating, etc.)
Makes one think more about all the radiation crewmembers get exposed to as well, even within the protective embrace of the Earth's magnetic field. That's one of the big hurdles to travel to Mars of course; long term exposure to varying levels of radiation (mostly from the Sun).
I just think it's geeky-cool that they put them in a particle accellerator for testing though.
I see a job opportunity for a network engineer, or at the very least a network cabling repair guy. Imagine that help desk ticket @ NASA.......
My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my Father! Prepare to die!
He's a nerd! Save yourself Rebecca!
;) )
(before you mod OT look at submission again
twitter.com/gravitronic
In space, no one can hear the NIC scream.
I am the unwilling control for my Origin.
The Amateur Radio satellites went to an Ethernet backbone some time ago - over a decade IIRC.
... that was relieved and surprised it wasn't "hub" and "10Base2"?
"Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
10Mbit switch? Am I the only one who thought "Gee, I would have though NASA could have afforded at least 100Mbit!"
The only reason I can come up with is the possibility of higher packet loss with all of the radiation. Does anyone know for sure?
Seriously... zero-g has no effect on this equipment. Yes it has to have more radiation shielding and has to be shock mounted to survive the launch but other that it could be an iPod or a DirectTV DVR. There's nothing innovative about this. They shot an ethernet switch into space... big deal. Call me when someone invents a way to use quantum entanglement to communicate faster than light. That's news.
Unless they suffer from congestion.
You ever ship anything UPS? If it survive *them*, launching into orbit should be a no-brainer.
Technology -- No Place For Wimps! Grateful Dead and Jerry Garcia Chatroom -- http://www.wemissjerry.org
> http://formyrebecca.blogspot.com/
When i read this, i felt the need to puke. This guy says he is together with his girlfriend for two years and want to marry her but yet he does still not know what she likes. And in order to find out he shows a total lack of integrity and installs a keylogger on her machine! This is a cruel break of trust. I really hope she finds out and tosses him. This is imho absolutely sick behaviour. And whats even worse that he apparently is even proud of his act of dishonesty and blogs about it.
Wasn't the first network for the ISS based on Token-ring? I participated in an Ethernet vs Token-ring RFP in the mid-80's against IBM and we lost the bid. We didn't play golf as well.
You are absolutely correct, which is why nothing on these networks is something on which life depends.
I'm going to greatly simplify this, but there are basically three networks onboard the space station. One is mostly off the shelf laptops and networking equipment that runs Windows and is used for crew support (email, procedures, timelines, photos, and such). It frequently needs maintenance, but it does the job. It's also (relatively) easy to certify and plug new hardware into it, so it can be updated frequently as commercial technology advances (for example, later this year the Thinkpad A31p laptops will be swapped out for newer models).
The second is a payload ethernet network that is used by the payload system to collect and downlink high volume data through the USOS Ku-band system. Failure of this network only impacts science collection and some support activities. These switches are part of this network. The standards are more stringent, but not to the level of stuff on which safety or mission success depends.
The third network is the core computer system, which is all custom built hardware/software wired up with MIL-STD 1553 data bus. This is the network which runs the core vehicle systems (life support, attitude control, what have you). The hardware and software are developed to a much more rigorous standard than the first two networks (and it obviously costs a lot more and is slower to update because the the long pole of certification and testing). Some of the machines on this network have been chugging along for nearly a decade without failure.
Worst...sig...ever!
That's what you get for reading TFA.
Won't someone think of the child molesters?
The Russians used a pencil