For those interested: A revamp of the Internet is under way to cover shortcomings interfering with expansion into the Solar System and beyond.
While extremely rugged, a few assumptions are built into the current Internet technologies, including short traversal times at light speeds and a relatively stable population of nodes to hop through to the destination, which are true on Earth. The present Internet fails otherwise.
Mars is minutes away at light speed, with a very spotty supply of nodes to there.
A new technology, DTN (Delay/Disruption-Tolerant Networking) utilizes a new protocol, Bundle Protocol, that is overlaid on top of existing space networking protocols or IP protocols. This has been tested in the ISS and is actively being placed in other spacecraft, by NASA and partner agencies. This is part of what is being tested at the Moon first for deployment to Mars.
Bundle Protocol was architected by Vint Cerf, a father of TCP/IP, and others.
Dear Karl Sipfle,
thank you for explaining the importance of Delay Tolerant Networking (DTN) in such an interesting way. Thanks to the ideas underlying the concept of DTN, the Interplanetary Internet can be built. For more about this see:
- DTN: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delay-tolerant_networking
- Interplanetary Internet: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interplanetary_Internet
The following IETF documents affect the Interplanetary Internet: RFC 5050, RFC 9171, RFC 9172, RFC 9173 and RFC 9174. These are available at the address: https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc-index.html
Best regards
Anatol Badach
RFC 5050: Bundle Protocol Specification, Nov 2007
RFC 9171: Bundle Protocol Version 7, Jan 2022
RFC 9172: Bundle Protocol Security (BPSec), Jan 2022
RFC 9173: Default Security Contexts for Bundle Protocol Security (BPSec), Jan 2022
RFC 9174: Delay-Tolerant Networking TCP Convergence-Layer Protocol Version 4, Jan 2022
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