Router technology creeps into the space age
IRIS project opens up IP routing over satellite
SaaS data loss: The problem you didn’t know you had
US military boffins are planning to put a satellite-based router into orbit.
The three-year Internet Routing In Space (IRIS) project is due to see a satellite that will aid military communications launched in the first quarter of 2009.
Satellite operator Intelsat will handle the management of the project with Cisco supplying the software technology. Denver-based Seakr Engineering has been picked to manufacture router hardware capable of surviving the extreme temperature and radiation hazards of space.
The IRIS payload will support network services for voice, video, and data communications, enabling military units to communicate with one another using more cheaply and efficiently using Internet protocol and existing ground equipment.
"The IRIS architecture allows direct IP routing over satellite, eliminating the need for routing via a ground-based teleport, thereby dramatically increasing the efficiency and flexibility of the satellite communications link," explained Don Brown, VP of hosted payload programs for Intelsat General.
The satellite will be placed in geostationary orbit at 45 degrees West longitude offering coverage of Europe, Africa and the Americas. Commercial services will be offered from the satellite once successful testing has been completed. "IRIS is to the future of satellite-based communications what ARPANET was to the creation of the internet in the 1960s," Intelsat's Brown added.
Networking switches have been carried on the space shuttle in the past but the IRIS project will place networking technology in permanent orbit, an important step towards creating an interplanetary internet. The Interplanetary Internet, the brainchild of net founder Vint Cerf, involves a project to create networking nodes in space along with developing protocols that tolerate the delays and interference found in space. The idea is to replace expensive one-of-a-kind space communication technology with more general purpose kit, adapted from widely used IP technologies. ®
COMMENTS
Re: WiMax in space
Last time I looked WiMax didn't have doppler-shift compensation. In fact WiMax I remember reading that there was/is a separate standard for mobile WiMax and I bet that doesn't compensate enough.
The IT community constantly believes that it invented the wheel, when in fact the technologies used in computing often are derived from scientific advances.
This story is interesting because it shows the potential of putting more processing in orbit than was previously possible because of the extreme environment.
the US oh so slow, go UK..... again
that fact is its amazing to me that even the UK CLEO didnt happen until 2002, the US seem to be very slow with copying the UK idea's.
by now id have expected all space sats to be using IP and Mesh transmitters ,its mad that they dont.
hell im expecting the UK Virgin backed 'spaceship one' or perhaps its commercial non human payloads version to be able to deploy simple Mesh'ed wireless/WiMax routers into orbit with a modifyed and cheap final stage rocket or whatever.....
how come they dont use IP mesh for the many deep space projects?, hell lots of mini WiMax transmitters deployed around a planet could collect far greater data, and they could even afford to send an exta few for off the cuff missions if something interesting shows up.
IP MESH and WIMAx could be a very good thing for the UK science if they just pulled their fingers out and got on with it.
will spaceship one become the greatest thing for comercial space wireless or will some US pay the french and russians to put up the tech.
Bindun in blighty several years ago
http://www.ee.surrey.ac.uk/Personal/L.Wood/cleo/
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