DTN

DTN is the product of the DTN Research Group within the Internet Research Task Force (IRTF).

Extending Cyberspace Into Outer Space - NASA Watch 2009

The point of the DINET experiment wasn't to establish relayed communications to EPOXI -- not necessary -- but instead to raise the technology readiness level of the DTN software to make it easier for future missions to use automated communication links.

Extending Cyberspace Into Outer Space - NASA Watch 2009

But the automated reliability you get from DTN enables you to transmit data at the beginning and end of a tracking pass, when the signal-to-noise is still low, because any data that are lost due to corruption are automatically retransmitted later.

Extending Cyberspace Into Outer Space - NASA Watch 2009

The DTN concept isn't a satellite-to-satellite communications concept, it's an automated communications concept.

Extending Cyberspace Into Outer Space - NASA Watch 2009

America's space agency, NASA, has been researching what it calls the delay - (or disruption -) tolerant network protocol, or DTN.

Extending Cyberspace Into Outer Space - NASA Watch 2009

The DTN protocols are more suited to much more local, densely populated environments where systems can use omni antennas or base stations with antennas pointed at a relay satellite (such as the DoD network centric battlefield).

Extending Cyberspace Into Outer Space - NASA Watch 2009

If this thing escalates and there's a good chance that there'd be a shift in supplies, $5 gas isn't out of the question, says Darin Newsom, senior analyst at energy tracker DTN.The average price of regular gasoline is expected to rise to $3.25 within a few days, says Tom Kloza, chief analyst at the Oil Price Information Service.

If Libyan unrest spreads, gas could reach $5 2011

One last point: the "invention" of the new DTN protocols isn't the work of "forces in NASA".

Extending Cyberspace Into Outer Space - NASA Watch 2009

DTN works in these kinds of environments, where the Internet protocols do not.

Extending Cyberspace Into Outer Space - NASA Watch 2009

DTN per se seems harmless, but the concept of networked satellite-to-satellite communications seems applicable only in very narrow circumstances, e.g. a crowded system of landers and orbiters at Mars.

Extending Cyberspace Into Outer Space - NASA Watch 2009