Interplanetary Internet about as useful as flying pigs says Vint Cerf Boffins that want to see Internet protocols extend to outer space – the so-called “Interplanetary Internet” – need to prove they're offering something useful, according to one of the father-figures of the Earth-bound Internet. Vint Cerf, who has taken an interest in beyond-Earth applications for the Internet protocol stack …
British loon-in-chief David Cameron & Ofcom announce plans for the first spectrum auction in outerspace.
HMRC refused to be drawn on whether VAT is applicable in outer space.
Outraged as per usual at someone getting there first Verizon and Comcast announce their intentions to sue the UN for passing a resolution demanding Space Net Neutrality, whilst simultaneously allowing 50 random third parties to add a "space surcharge" to their customers bills.
Now he realises. I was briefly involved with this when it first "launched" and the main objective then seemed to be marketing. An Interplanetary Internet got lots of publicity and got me a meeting with some genuine rocket scientists who explained the current protocols being used. Which were rather elegant and efficient, and so I asked 'Why would you want to use TCP/IP?' and my involvement ended. Probably for not being entirely on-message.
But there were also some parallel developments, much like the neverending ITU v IETF holy wars. So there was the CCSDS that had been around since the '80s looking after space communications for most of the space agencies. They've developed interesting things like SCPS-TP already, which is a extraterrestrial version of TCP. With some improvements. Ask if your vendor supports it with your next RFP!
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