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Router Tested On Satellite In Space

Posted by timothy on Thu Jul 01, 2004 10:33 AM
from the ping-times dept.
Communications Space Wireless Networking Science Hardware
The Cisco router launched into orbit in September onboard a satellite built by SSTL (and on a Russian rocket) has now been successfully tested in space, and there's a video describing this and putting routers in space. A neat twenty-year coincidence here: an early Surrey satellite has been operating for twenty years, and Cisco launched its fastest router on its twentieth birthday. What do the next twenty years hold for fast routers in space?
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[+] IPv6 Tested in Space 207 comments
An anonymous reader writes "Remember the Cisco router orbiting on a satellite in space? Well, it's now also the first to run IPv6 in space. Since no-one is choosing to run IPv6 on the ground, isn't this a bit pointless?"
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  • But did they fix the latency yet?
    You need ping to play Quake from space!
    • Actually, this is a pretty valid point. Most (if not all) multiplayer games like Quake, Everquest, etc are unplayable with orbital lag. I had an ISP in the past that used a satellite link, and ping times to game servers were far too high to play. If any major portion of the internet ever gets routed this way, it could spell the end of multiplayer gaming on the internet.
      • Orbital lag is really just a problem with sats in geosync orbit. A network of low-earth orbiting satelites would be able to give you ping times as low as most landlines.
  • Only sadness for the poor routers out there all alone.
  • The satellite with the Cisco router has been hijacked by attackers using a recently discovered Cisco vulnerability. Experts believe the intent is to launch a denial of service attack on the Cassini-Huygens probe. Upon gaining root access, the attackers patched the vulnerability and changed the passwords. A multi-million dollar space mission is planned next week to manually press the reset button on the router.

  • It's all fun and games until... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by malakai (136531) * on Thursday July 01 2004, @11:23AM (#9582674) Journal
    %% Unable to create EXEC - no memory or too many processes
    ...mmm memory leaks...

    Solution? Disconnect your LAN/WAN interfaces so the rotuer frees up enough memory to create the shell. Oh, better be local when you do this...


  • "Virus tested on router on satellite in space"

    -Adam

  • The articles were a bit lacking details, but a few things struck me.

    It didn't say what they were routing between. In most instances, merchant satellites are just used for point to point connections, so they are just bent-pipes. I am assuming that they are routing between different spot-beams or transponders. Or maybe the router is actually a bridge?

    One of the articles said that the satellite in question was a LEO. This means that it is in a non-stationary orbit, so ground terminals will have periodi

    • The sats that SSTL build are generally earth-obs sats - they're midway through a global monitoring constellation to provide 24/7 distaster and earth monitoring to a group of many countries. The router, therefore, will be being used on the onboard data networks between the system and sensor modules, uplink/downlink, OBC etc. I have a feeling that this is only being tested, so it'll run in parallel with their normal satellite data shunts and their multiple redundant networks.

      Being in LEO, it's in the line-of
  • Don't tell me they use gravity or air pressure to do switching.
    • in orbit with no atmosphere you have to worry about radiation disturbances of your circuits. solar flares frying your circuitry, micrometeors slamming into the satellites, backdoors in your software, and spam ;P

  • Interplanetary Internet (Score:3, Interesting)

    by StarWynd (751816) on Thursday July 01 2004, @01:38PM (#9584260)
    Routers in space will be the first steps towards an interplanetary internet [ipnsig.org]. The folks at CCSDS (Consultive Committee for Space Data Systems) have been working on an interplanetary internet specification [ccsds.org] for a while now. Some additional technical details [ipnsig.org] and other information [ipnsig.org] is also available. Very interesting stuff.
  • Didn't DirectPC already have NATs in Space? And just in case I need the funny mod as well: And didn't the Muppets have PIGs in Space?

  • Ping Times (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    The problem is that the data signals are only limited to the speed on light so interplanitary internet would be impossible.. A ping of 15 minutes from Earth to Mars?
  • With the routers in space, we can now detect when hostile alien invaders begin to use them to coordinate their attack and destruction of planet Earth!

    Fortunately, the Cisco IOS vulnerabilities will remain intact to accommodate the breach of security that will save the planet Earth!

    Only 2 more days to go!

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