PENTAGON TO PUT INTERNET ROUTER -- IN SPACE

Net reaches out to final frontier

Iris will allow troops to communicate over the net from remote regions

A programme to kick-start the use of internet communications in space
has been announced by the US government.

The Department of Defense's Iris project will put an internet router
in space by the start of 2009.

It will allow voice, video and data communications for US troops using
standards developed for the internet.

Eventually Iris could extend the net into space, allowing data to flow
directly between satellites, rather than sending it via ground
stations.

"Iris is to the future of satellite-based communications what Arpanet
was to the creation of the internet in the 1960s," said Don Brown, of
Intelsat General, one of the companies who will build the platform.

Arpanet (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network), the predecessor
of the internet, was developed by the United States Department of
Defense.

Remote access

The Iris (Internet Router Protocol in Space) project has been given
the go ahead after winning funding from the US Department of Defense,
under its Joint Capability Technology Demonstration (JCTD) programme.

The programme aims to develop advanced concepts and put "innovative
concepts into the hands of war fighters in the field."

The Iris project is one of seven that has been given funding this
year. Others include development of smart sensors and counter
camouflage technology.


Iris is a three year programme to develop a satellite platform and
"space hardened router".

A router is a piece of hardware that directs packets of information
around a network.

The specially designed equipment will be developed by network
specialist Cisco while the geostationary satellite, IS-14, will be
built by Intelsat.

When launched in 2009 it will allow troops to communicate over the
internet from the remotest regions from Europe Africa and the
Americas.

"Iris extends the internet into space, integrating satellite systems
and the ground infrastructure for warfighters, first responders and
others who need seamless and instant communications," said Bill
Shernit, CEO of Intelsat general.

After initial testing the satellite will be opened up for commercial
use.

Cyber space

Launching Iris could also signal the beginning of the development of
the internet in space.

At the moment most satellites have to communicate with one another
through ground stations or via radio signals to a relay satellite.


Deploying routers on satellites would allow them to communicate
directly with one another using common internet standards, known as
internet protocol (IP).

"The Iris architecture allows direct IP routing over satellite,
eliminating the need for routing via a ground-based teleport," said Mr
Brown.

It also raises the possibility of routinely transferring data through
the satellite network, rather than ground based cables.

"This is a logical extension of radio communication between
satellites," said Paul Stephens of DMC international imaging, a
subsidiary of Surrey Satellites in the UK.

Along with Cisco and US space agency Nasa, it put one of the first
routers in space onboard the UK-DMC satellite, part of the Disaster
Monitoring Constellation (DMC) used for observing the Earth for major
disasters.

The DMC router uses the latest IP networking standards to send
critical images to ground stations for use by rescue workers.

With IP becoming more prevalent for use in space, Nasa and internet
pioneer Vint Cerf have also investigated the possibility of using
internet technology across the solar system.

Although some work has been carried out on the necessary standards and
protocols, no definite schedule has been announced for this
interplanetary internet.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6551807.stm

"AirRaid" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> "Iris is to the future of satellite-based communications what Arpanet
> was to the creation of the internet in the 1960s," said Don Brown, of
> Intelsat General, one of the companies who will build the platform.

Uh... somebody may correct me, but one of the first extensions of the
original 4-host Arpanet was trying to build a satelite link to the UK -
and two-way Internet connections via Satellite are becoming cheap by
now (around 50 Euros per month for 1Mb/128k) - so what exactly is NEWS
about that?

Juergen Nieveler
--
"Eating uranium makes me feel funny", said Tom glowingly

"Juergen Nieveler" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed). ..
> "AirRaid" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>> "Iris is to the future of satellite-based communications what Arpanet
>> was to the creation of the internet in the 1960s," said Don Brown, of
>> Intelsat General, one of the companies who will build the platform.
>
> Uh... somebody may correct me, but one of the first extensions of the
> original 4-host Arpanet was trying to build a satelite link to the UK -
> and two-way Internet connections via Satellite are becoming cheap by
> now (around 50 Euros per month for 1Mb/128k) - so what exactly is NEWS
> about that?
>
> Juergen Nieveler
> --
> "Eating uranium makes me feel funny", said Tom glowingly

Hmm. Yes, my first thought was this article is twenty years old.

> Hmm. Yes, my first thought was this article is twenty years old.


We need a comment from somebody who knows, but right away, I see the
difference is the fact that it will not just be a relay to an earth
backbone, but will BE a backbone or at least a node on the internet.

As I understand it now, the HughesNet satellites, for example, simply
act as ar elay from our dish to a dish at the Hughes Network
Operations Center. From there, it is routed onto the internet. No
matter where you are in the world, on Hughesnet, your packets enter
the internet in Germantown Maryland or Las Vegas Nevada. Even if you
are in Peru, checking out a website hosted in the sametown, or
chatting with you neighbor by VOIP (to the degree that it works).

Basically, the satellite acts as a very, very long extension of our
local network.

So, if it's a node on the internet and not just a relay, then it will
route a package more directly, not through a NOC. Something like
that ?

I'm guessing that this generally will cut the lag time and
considerably shorten the route to any given site over today's
satellite relays.

Steve

Newsbits gleaned:

"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," said Don Brown, Vice President of Hosted
Payload
Programs for Intelsat General.


>From PCWorld:

Cyberspace meets outer space in plan to put a router in orbit to speed
satellite communications.
John Blau, IDG News Service
Thursday, April 12, 2007 08:00 AM PDT


The U.S. military plan to test an Internet router in space, in a
project that could also benefit civilian broadband satellite
communications.

Cisco Systems Inc. and Intelsat General Corp., a subsidiary of
Intelsat Ltd., are among the companies selected by the U.S. Department
of Defense for its Internet Routing In Space (IRIS) project, which
aims to deliver military communications through a satellite-based
router.

Potential nonmilitary benefits of the IRIS program include the ability
to route IP (Internet Protocol) traffic between satellites in space in
much the same way packets are moved on the ground, reducing delays,
saving on capacity and offering greater networking flexibility, Lloyd
Wood, space initiatives manager in the Global Defense, Space &
Security division of Cisco, said Thursday.

To send a message from one remote terminal to another via satellite
today requires the first terminal to send the data to the satellite,
from where it is bounced back to an earth station for routing. The
earth station retransmits it to the satellite on a different
frequency, selected depending on its destination, and the satellite
bounces it back to its destination. With the router in space, the
satellite can pick the channel used to send the message to its
destination. By eliminating the message's round trip to the earth
station, operators can increase satellite capacity and reduce
transmission times between remote terminals by using fewer hops and
fewer frequencies for each message.

For the IRIS program, satellite operator Intelsat will manage the
three-year project, with Cisco will provide IP networking software for
the on-board router.

After testing, the technology will be available for commercial use.

Although satellites have been passively relaying IP traffic since the
1970s, the use of an orbiting satellite as an active part of the
Internet is a more recent development, according to Wood.

Traditionally, communication signals that come up to a satellite in
either the C-band or the Ku-band, go down in the same band, he said.
They require separate transponders that don't communicate with each
other.

Internet routing technology being tested in the IRIS project will
enable this communication by "decoding what comes up in the C-band or
Ku-band and interconnecting the two," said Wood.

"You save on delays and capacity by not having to go back to the
ground," said Wood. "And once you have smarter satellites, you can
treat them as not completely separate but as part of your IP network
and manage them as you do your IP networking assets on the ground.
They become fully integrated with your terrestrial network, allowing
you to take advantage of existing management tools and also decrease
the number of ground stations."

The IRIS payload will support network services for voice, video and
data. The system is designed to support IP packet Layer 3 routing or
multicast distribution, which can be reconfigured on demand.

The Defense Information Systems Agency will have overall
responsibility for coordinating the use of IRIS technology among
government users and leveraging IRIS capability once the satellite is
in space.

The satellite is set for launch in the first quarter of 2009.

>
> Basically, the satellite acts as a very, very long extension of our
> local network.
>

Wait a minute. Even I can see that this statement is wrong. Should
read:

> Basically, the satellite acts as a very, very long relayed connection to the ISP. With the new system, it will BE the ISP's internet node?

"seaweedsteve" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed) oups.com...
> Newsbits gleaned:
>
> "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," said Don Brown, Vice President of Hosted
> Payload
> Programs for Intelsat General.

With the exception of someone using a VSAT link somewhere out in the middle
of bugger all where the land lines don't run, what's the point?

Anyone using a VSAT link doesn't really care anyway, they need some sort of
router at their end to get onto the net anyway so they don't actually care
where the next router in the chain is and they're certainly not interested
in expensive satellite to satellite links. All they really want is to
ground their signal somewhere where there's a POTS fibre trunk.

--
William Black


I've seen things you people wouldn't believe.
Barbeques on fire by the chalets past the castle headland
I watched the gift shops glitter in the darkness off the Newborough gate
All these moments will be lost in time, like icecream on the beach
Time for tea.

Maybe the naysayers are right and this is mostly hype. For
clarification by a satellite expert see Don's comment on this in the
satellite newsgroup:

http://groups.google.com/group/alt.s...2f3dd2d4?hl=en

"seaweedsteve" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed) ps.com...
>> Hmm. Yes, my first thought was this article is twenty years old.
>
>
> We need a comment from somebody who knows, but right away, I see the
> difference is the fact that it will not just be a relay to an earth
> backbone, but will BE a backbone or at least a node on the internet.
>
> As I understand it now, the HughesNet satellites, for example, simply
> act as ar elay from our dish to a dish at the Hughes Network
> Operations Center. From there, it is routed onto the internet. No
> matter where you are in the world, on Hughesnet, your packets enter
> the internet in Germantown Maryland or Las Vegas Nevada. Even if you
> are in Peru, checking out a website hosted in the sametown, or
> chatting with you neighbor by VOIP (to the degree that it works).
>
> Basically, the satellite acts as a very, very long extension of our
> local network.
>
> So, if it's a node on the internet and not just a relay, then it will
> route a package more directly, not through a NOC. Something like
> that ?
>
> I'm guessing that this generally will cut the lag time and
> considerably shorten the route to any given site over today's
> satellite relays.
Iridium already does satellie to satellite links.
As for the delay, that will still be there, as you have to get up and back
to the satellite, On VSATS in the field and my own satellite connection at
the house here in Alaska, I have seen delays up to 2 doing ping.
>
> Steve
>

"AirRaid" <(E-Mail Removed)> hath wroth:

>The Department of Defense's Iris project will put an internet router
>in space by the start of 2009.

Yawn.... NASA launched a Cisco router into orbit in Sept 2003.
<http://caia.swin.edu.au/talks/CAIA-TALK-060208A.pdf>
As I recall, it could only be tested for 10-15 minutes at a time
before power restrictions necessitated that it be shut down.

More:
<http://www.cisco.com/go/space>

Lots of up to date references and URL as to what's being planned and
suggested:
<http://www.ee.surrey.ac.uk/Personal/L.Wood/cleo/>
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CLEO_(router)>

Whenever I read something like this, I ask myself "What problem are
they trying to solve"? The US military wants to fly a smart router to
reduce traffic between ground stations, possibly even eliminating the
number of ground stations required. That's an admirable goal that can
more economically be achieved by doing most of the routing on the
ground or working on protocol efficiency, but those projects don't get
headlines.

It's basically a good idea if there are multiple connections to the
satellite communications system. For the home satellite internet
users, that would mean that pinging another user would go directly
between users via the router in the sky. That reduces latency and
enables peer-to-peer applications such as VoIP and global illegal file
sharing. The problem is that the ISP never sees the peer-to-peer
traffic as it never goes down to the ISP's ground stations. That
means that the ISP can't easily do filtering, traffic management,
sniffing, and abuse mitigation. The router in the sky can send
reports down to the ground, and of course ACL lists can be used, but I
doubt if this particular router will have the horsepower to do this
for the entire continent. Maybe the next generation probably called
"ISP in the Sky".

>Although some work has been carried out on the necessary standards and
>protocols, no definite schedule has been announced for this
>interplanetary internet.

Yep. More research, justification, politics, bribes, deals, awards,
litigation, consortia, licensing, auctions, press releases and
technology are necessary.

--
Jeff Liebermann (E-Mail Removed)
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558