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Vint Cerf Preps Interplanetary Internet Protocol

TechFiends32 writes "After years of working with NASA to bring Internet connectivity to deep space, scientists say Vint Cerf's efforts may be nearing completion. To combat the apparent challenges of extending the Internet into space (such as meteors and weighty, high-powered antennas), Cerf and others have made significant efforts, like adjusting satellite-based IP, and working on delay-tolerant networking (DTN) to address pure IP's limitations in space. According to principal engineer at The Mitre Corp., Keith Scott, 'The 2010 goal is designed to bring DTN to a sufficient level of maturity to incorporate it into designs for robotic and human lunar exploration.'"

15 of 177 comments (clear)

  1. More work to be done by Chris+Burke · · Score: 4, Funny

    I assume then that at some point someone will have to write up a new RFC on "IP Over Space-Avian Carrier"?

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  2. KA9Q by karl.auerbach · · Score: 4, Informative

    Phil Karn's old KA9Q implementation of TCP (for amateur radio) was designed to accommodate very long delays.

  3. Re:Caching would be great here too by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    aw, shit. now goatcx will be trolled into outer space, giving a new meaning to the term black hole.

  4. Re:Caching would be great here too by jandrese · · Score: 4, Informative

    The trick is that you don't have to use TCP as your transport layer. DTN bundles can be transmitted over UDP, NORM, sneakernet, carrier pigeon, or anything else you can write a convergence layer for. Since DTN abstracts away the lower levels, each hop can use the transport layer that is most appropriate, like TCP on an internet hop, SCPS on a satellite hop, etc...

    More information is available on the DTN Research Group's homepage: http://dtnrg.org.

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  5. Re:Caching would be great here too by AKAImBatman · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I think you're missing the point. The general idea here is to have a packet switched communications system throughout the solar system. That way if a probe is in the shadow of, say, Jupiter, it can bounce a signal off a probe orbiting Venus, which will relay the signal back to Earth.

    The end result would be a more robust communications system. In the future, interplanetary communications satellites could even end up doing most of the grunt-work, thus allowing probes and manned spacecraft to carry smaller communications packages designed to work with the network rather than broadcasting in as many conditions as possible.

    such a network would also be useful for astronauts on another planet or meteor. Rather than setting up a communications station, they can use orbiting satellites to relay their transmissions. (Something which NASA already does on a smaller scale with probes like the Mars rovers.)

  6. Bold (Crazy) Prediction by religious+freak · · Score: 4, Funny

    This will be in wider use in 30 years than IPv6

    Maybe not, but wouldn't it be crazy if it was?

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  7. Re:Caching would be great here too by jandrese · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Caching is very useful in space. What happens when your satellite orbits around to the other side of Mars? You have several hours of no-communication and have to store everything you were going to send (and people on the other end have to store what they were going to send to you).

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    I read the internet for the articles.
  8. Re:mooncam by __aapbzv4610 · · Score: 5, Informative

    actually there is no such thing as an earthrise on the moon, as the moon does not 'rotate' in relation to it's movement around the earth. At any point on the surface of the moon facing the earth, the earth will always be in the same point in the sky, always.

  9. In related news ... by PPH · · Score: 4, Funny

    ... Comcast moves to block P2P (planet to planet) traffic.

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  10. Re:A new area awaiting patentification by clarkkent09 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Citizens of Earth,

    It has come to our attention that an earthling called Vint Cerf is making unauthorized use of our work in violation of GPTO (Galactic Patents and Trademarks Office) patent number 0932984720392837409 for Interplanetary Internet Protocol.

    We demand that he must immediately cease the use and distribution of our work and that he forwards all copies and relevant documentation to us by the earliest space courier. Failure to do so will result in a lawsuit to the amount of our estimated damages of 1,008,076,123.09 galactic credits (equal to 0.0008 USD).

    Very truly yours,

    Aliens

    P.S Greetings, Dr Mitchell

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  11. Re:mooncam by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Wrong.
    Libration causes the visible face of the moon to oscillate slightly.
    Therefore, you can see an Earthrise from certain points on the moon without being in motion relative to the moon yourself.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libration

  12. in space... by notgm · · Score: 4, Funny

    in space, no one can hear you ping.

  13. Also appropriate for station wagon full of tapes? by Locke2005 · · Score: 4, Funny

    "Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of tapes hurtling down the highway." -- Andrew S. Tanenbaem, Computer Networks, 4th Ed. p. 91

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  14. Hmmmmmm by tgd · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Per byte its probably still a lot cheaper than using SMS.

  15. Re:From TFA by Mattsson · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You don't simply send your packet and then wipe your cache. You keep the packets at every hop it traverses until you know that it has arrived at its destination, so that you can resend it in case of a transmission error or fatal equipment failure.
    Especially since you, with these distances, can have a large chunk of data in transit between two satellites due to the slow pace of light and radio waves.
    That, along with the limited transmission speeds, is also one of the reasons why you do not want to resend lost packets all the way from the originator, which is still possible in the worst case scenario where the data is lost in all the routing satellites.
    Unless the probe, or Mars lander or whatever also loose the data before it gets through.

    Actually, such a system is more secure, from a data loss point of view, since the data can get through even if it is lost at both the originator and at some point in transfer, since it can be resent by any router that it has passed through.

    It makes sensitive data vulnerable to interception though... In case some aliens where to abduct a satellite that's caching data before it can be purged. =)
     

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