INTERPLANETARY INTERNET

INTERPLANETARY INTERNET

Abstract
Interplanetary Internet: a communication system to provide Internet-like services across interplanetary distances in support of deep space exploration. Our approach, which we refer to as bundling, builds a store-and-forward overlay network above the transport layers of underlying networks. Bundling uses many of the techniques of electronic mail, but is directed toward interprocess communication, and is designed to operate in environments that have very long speed-of-light delays. We partition
the Interplanetary Internet into IPN Regions, and discuss the implications that this has on naming and routing. We discuss the way that bundling establishes dialogs across intermittently connected internets, and go on to discuss the types of bundle nodes that exist in the interplanetary internet, followed by a discussion of security
in the IPN, a discussion of the IPN backbone network.
With the increasing pace of space exploration, Earth will distribute large numbers of robotic vehicles, landers, and possibly even humans,to asteroids and other planets in the coming decades. Possible future missions include landers/rover/orbiter sets, sample return missions, aircraft communicating with orbiters, and outposts of humans or computers remotely operating rovers. All of these missions involve clusters of entities in relatively close proximity communicating with each other in challenging environments. These clusters, in turn, will be in intermittent contact with one another, possibly across interplanetary space. This dual-mode communications environment: relatively cheap round-trips and more constant connectivity when communicating with "local" elements coupled with the very long-delay and intermittent connectivity with non-local elements has led us to development of interplanetary internet (IPN).

The new technology of the terrestrial Internet needs to be extended into space. We believe that the creation and adoption of Internet-friendly standards for space communication will enhance our ability to build a common interplanetary communication infrastructure. We think this infrastructure will be needed to support the expansion of human intelligence throughout the Solar System. The current terrestrial Internet and its technology provide a robust basis to support these missions in an efficient and scalable manner. In summary, the best way to envision the fundamental architecture of the Interplanetary Internet is to picture a network of internets.Ordinary internets (many being wireless in nature) are placed on the surface of moons and planets as well as in free-flying spacecraft.These remotely deployed internets run ordinary Internet protocols. A system of Interplanetary Gateways connected by deep-space transmission links form a backbone communication infrastructure that provides connectivity for each of the deployed internets. New long-haul protocols, some confined to the backbone network and some operating end-to-end, allow the deployed internets to communicate with each other.