Cisco's Orbital IP Router Test is a Success
A router orbiting in space could lead to military and commercial Internet based in the heavens.
Internet in space moved one step closer to reality after a successful in-orbit test of Cisco Systems' radiation-proof router mounted on a commercial satellite. The test was part of Cisco's overall Internet Routing in Space (IRIS) project that will eventually route IP voice, video, and data traffic between satellites rather than through terrestrial networks.
"There is a very strong potential for IRIS to revolutionize communications satellite architecture," said Don Brown of Intelsat General. "IP changes everything." The company's Intelsat 14 communications satellite--which escorted the piggybacking router into space--launched on November 23, 2009.
Cisco's IRIS project manager Greg Pelton says that a space-based router can prioritize more important traffic by intelligently allocating bandwidth. This means that bandwidth no longer in use by one company can be switched over to another customer. Space-based routers will also allow telecommunications companies to offer high-bandwidth, on-demand services.
Now that the first router is active, Cisco will hand over the technology to the Department of Defense for its evaluation--this will be used for military purposes for around three months. Once that is completed, Cisco plans to work with the technology for the next year to determine its use in the private sector.
For more info on Cisco's Internet Routing in Space, head here.
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Ohhh.. that looks good, just wait that this is not used for military purposes.
Nice. I'd expect this to be available for consumers in ~3-4 years or sooner.
I don't think it would be available that soon, but you never know. If it does some how progress that far it would be really amazing.
COOL Wireless internet coming from space seems likely now, however we should watch out for alien hackers or they will overload our bandwidth downloading porn LMAO
If they are low orbit satellites, it would mean worldwide connections with 5 ping only! In perspective, when I connect to a US server from Argentina my ping is around 220.
This could really make web and online gaming a lot more better for the rest of the world.
it would mean worldwide connections with 5 ping only!...
Give me a ping, Vasili. One ping only, please. -Captain Ramius (Sean Connery)
Hmmm I wonder how well shielded this orbital router is against solar radiation due to the magnetosphere having been weakened 15% over the 20th century and the massive hole that is present. If the sat is powered down during a major solar event and the grid goes down this may very well be one of the few mass communication links that may still be fully functional afterward.
What with the cost expenditure of this Router, I wonder if they were actually smart enough to make sure that this router has Native IPv6 Support, especially seeing that it's being used by the military for a bit of testing.
this is awesome, now we just need to find a way to get rid of clouds so we could get a better signal
Awesome, Cisco rocks. XD I can't wait to be talking to Astronauts by using the internet. =D
Now, how do we go about hacking satellites?
COOL Wireless internet coming from space seems likely now, however we should watch out for alien hackers or they will overload our bandwidth downloading porn LMAO
Why does everything come to downloading porn to certain types of people on Toms?
...it would mean worldwide connections with 5 ping only!
I've only seen pings that low on LANs. I doubt that anything satellite will have low pings.
Why do people think this will give ultra low pings? I know lots of people with satellite internet in my rural area and they all complain of 800+ms latency. And we're not talking the kind of sat with dialup for upstream, it's two-way satellite internet.
This will only be good if the network can work out the difference between data that needs to low latency (games) and other data that isn't latency important (music / video streaming). If it can do that, then its a good idea, if not, its going to annoy allot of gamers.
This will only be good if the network can work out the difference between data that needs to low latency (games) and other data that isn't latency important (music / video streaming). If it can do that, then its a good idea, if not, its going to annoy allot of gamers.
Amen to that.
Downloading files requires huge amounts of bandwidth, but the ping is trivial.
Playing online games requires as little a ping as possible, but the actual bandwidth is negligible.
I'm all for gigabit up/down fiber optics, but they're damned expensive.
If we can give a comparable service for cheaper to countires with low population densities (Canada) were fiber is a poor choice for the time being, then this may be a great solution.
It just brings up the question though, can we give even your average consumer gigabit up/down and still give a reasonable ping?
I've only seen pings that low on LANs. I doubt that anything satellite will have low pings.
LOL well it's not that I do it, but the statistics are sad, no matter who gives them, news on TV, online or radio, the stats are porn is the highest searched, uploaded and downloaded content on the internet, and not just by a little but by far, so its just a bit of joke to consider maybe aliens would be like us humans and waist bandwidth with such content. When the internet slows down some porn junkie is getting a fix LMAO! or maybe it's just someone pirating every ripped movie and song out there LOL
OK that was odd, I selected the correct comment and after posting the wrong one as inserted in the quotes, what the heck was up with that?! Sorry zerapio that was not intended for you.
Actually, the ping would be quite high. When we watch live sports from the other end of the world, there is a delay by a considerable amount. I suppose it would be applicable to internet too.
Actually, the ping would be quite high. When we watch live sports from the other end of the world, there is a delay by a considerable amount. I suppose it would be applicable to internet too.
Correct, its to do with the distance between the planet and satellite, the actual speed a byte literally moves though the network won't be much different, so then the extra distance creates a much higher latency / ping. Even if it has a higher bandwidth the speed from point a to point b is still largely dependent on the distance to travel. The difference is with a larger bandwidth available more data can be shifted from point a to point b in a single go.
Does that make sense?
If it doesn't just go to Wikipedia and lookup latency.
Why cant we use lasers instead of radio waves? Imagine Fiber optics with out the cable. That would solve the ping problem and the bandwidth problem. route fiber to a cell tower and then slap a laser on top. Probably cut a hole in the atmosphere, but its not like that hasnt happened before
Doesn't this prove the whole "not landing on the moon in 1969 theory"? Or whenever it was. RADIATION proof? What the hell? I thought these things were taken care of a loooong time ago and it was a GIVEN that things needed to be RADIATION proof in order to even BE in space. I hate LIES.
Why cant we use lasers instead of radio waves? Imagine Fiber optics with out the cable. That would solve the ping problem and the bandwidth problem. route fiber to a cell tower and then slap a laser on top. Probably cut a hole in the atmosphere, but its not like that hasnt happened before
Radio waves and lasers travel at about the same speed, any difference in the speed would make little to no difference. Light would take 0.1366 to travel around the "surface" of the earth, if you go into space the circumference becomes considerably bigger. Also each router needs to read the data thats coming in and then retransmit it. So the speed the each router in the chain between point a and b can do that is also added to your latency / ping (note ping is technically just the name of the program that tests your latency).
Also, how easy do you think it would be to lock a laser onto a moving object thats miles away?
Nothing is radiation proof. These are just more fortified against radiation so the life span of the electronics may be longer.
Wow a lot of interesting comments on this article.
Doesn't this prove the whole "not landing on the moon in 1969 theory"?
The circuitry then was SOO much tougher than the 65nm or smaller we use today. Radiation wasn't as big a deal to the electronics back then, our technology today is vastly more sensitive.
COOL Wireless internet coming from space seems likely now, however we should watch out for alien hackers or they will overload our bandwidth downloading porn LMAO
Yeah. Oh by the way, we already have internet from space....it's called satellite data and it's been around for decades, or did you not get the memo?
So who's going to unplug the router and wait 30 seconds and plug it back in?
Anyone who has used satellite internet knows about the latency problems associated with it... DirectTV's internet service (whatever it's called this month!) uses satellites that are 20k+ miles up in orbit... definitely not low-earth orbit... and you're guaranteed a 250 ms ping time... with reality being even higher than that. However, if these are in lower orbit... I suppose latency won't be nearly as big of a deal. Hell, Wikipedia says the maximum latency is 900 ms!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satel [...] munication
900 ms?!? Yeah, that sounds SWEET!!! *rolls eyes*
Terminator. Skynet. 'Nough said.