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Intelsat Launches Hardware For Internet Routing From Space

Posted by timothy on from the distinguish-from-other-talking-birds dept.

coondoggie writes "A radiation-proof Cisco router was sent into space today aboard an Intelsat satellite with the goal of setting up military communications from space. The router/satellite combo is a key part of the US Department of Defense's Internet Routing In Space (IRIS) project, which aims to route IP voice, video and data traffic between satellites in space in much the same way packets are moved on the ground, reducing delays, saving on capacity and offering greater network flexibility, Cisco stated."

15 of 83 comments (clear)

  1. Time to go! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Now that we can browse porn from Mars is there any reason not to go?

  2. It won't work because, by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    in space no one can hear you stream...

  3. Yes but ... by oldspewey · · Score: 3, Informative

    ... does it run dd-wrt?

    --
    If libertarians are so opposed to effective government, why don't they all move to Somalia?
  4. Intelsat by Cisco by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    If they manufactured it in China then the back door is already built in by the factory so the Chinese can read all traffic or interdict it in a crisis.

  5. Not even Cisco by DesertNomad · · Score: 2, Insightful

    no such thing as radiation-proof for electronics. Resistant and resilient, perhaps. Radiation-hardened, maybe.

    1. Re:Not even Cisco by oldspewey · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I thought I read somewhere that lead is exactly the wrong thing to use if you're shielding against cosmic rays. While cosmic rays themselves are most likely to pass right through human bodies or sensitive electronics without "hitting" anything important. If you shield with lead, the cosmic rays do an excellent job busting alpha (or was it beta) radiation loose from the lead itself, which then wreaks havoc when those particles collide with humans or electronics in the surrounding environment.

      Particle physicists, please chime in here and correct my (I am sure numerous) errors.

      --
      If libertarians are so opposed to effective government, why don't they all move to Somalia?
    2. Re:Not even Cisco by bucky0 · · Score: 3, Informative

      bremsstrahlung is the word you want :) /physics!

      --

      -Bucky
  6. Re:Yes but ...Christmas gifts,Jacket,shoes,handbag by ByOhTek · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Annoying slashdotters?

    Is this site *BEGGING* to get hacked?

    --
    Self proclaimed typo king, and inventor of the bear destroying coffee table (patent not pending).
  7. No Viop for you by headhot · · Score: 4, Funny

    I'm sure Cisco conveniently forgot to explain the concept of latency before they sold them voice service on and router in space.

    1. Re:No Viop for you by Sepodati · · Score: 2, Informative

      You obviously haven't worked with Cisco VoIP over satellite links. It works perfectly fine over single satellite hops and up to three hops, in my experience. I've had VoIP calls with 2-3 second delays because of the number of hops and radio links that were completely functional. Of course there's delay. DoD users are far more tolerant of the delay than normal users, though. Usually it's as simple as using the word "over"... :)

      -John

    2. Re:No Viop for you by petermgreen · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I see a few advantages to this

      The first is it reduces the latency when two forward bases want to communicate with each other.

      The second is that it means your forward bases can communicate with each other even if your main base is somehow knocked out.

      The third is it reduces the load on the downlink to main base.

      Of course there are trade-offs to smart satellites, you can't use more complex modulation to get more out of an existing channel for example but you can't easily do that anyway if your satellite is serving lots of ground stations and we are getting pretty close to the limit on modulation efficiency anyway. So I think your "obsolete in two years" is overstating the case severely.

      --
      note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register
  8. mcmurdo.gov by Doc+Ruby · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Back in the earlier days of the less popular Internet, I used to get a kick out of pining mcmurdo.gov , the US base in McMurdo Sound, Antarctica, because it was as far as I could reach on the Net (ping times usually about 800ms). Before I'd traveled very much around the physical globe, I'd stretch my imagination to the scale spanning "me to McMurdo".

    I'm really psyched to look forward to pinging Jupiter.

    --

    --
    make install -not war

  9. I see a problem here. by ctrl-alt-canc · · Score: 2, Funny

    In case of emergency, RFC1149/RFC2549 transport protocols cannot be used. I think NASA should find a workaround, in order to increase reliability of space communications.

  10. muppets by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Pings iiiin spaaaaaaace!

  11. How long by Idiomatick · · Score: 2, Funny

    How long before an ISP sues NASA for giving space internet for free, clearly abusing their governmental status and money.