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Routers in orbit

Internet by satellite has been around for a long time now.

I recall when iHug launched its own satellite service many years ago and they were kind enough to let me try it out.

Compared to the dial-up access I'd been using before that, the satellite offered uber-fast download speeds, although their version still required a landline dial-up connection for the uplink.

Today there are several satellite internet providers who can offer broadband speeds directly from space to almost anywhere in the country.

But now, internet from orbit is about to take an important leap forwards.

To date, the transponders used for relaying internet data have not been built specifically for handling internet connections. They've more often been repurposed data transponders pushed into the role of relaying IP packets.

Late last year however, a new kind of satellite was launched, becoming the first real internet router in orbit.

So what's the big deal?

Well the previous generation of data transponder was a simple system that simply broadcast the data uplinked from a single point. The process of getting a packet from machine A to machine B would sometimes involve several ground-stations and perhaps even a few up/down links, all of which added latency, overhead and cost.

The new orbiting router is capable of point to point routing, something that has the potential to significantly streamline and speed-up the delivery of data between the machines that might connect through it.

Using the right equipment, ground-based users can communicate with each other via the satellite without the need for any other ground-based systems or services other than their own satellite dishes.

Unfortunately, this first orbiting router is (of course) is for military use and demonstration purposes so you won't be setting up a VLAN that spans the country using such a system just yet.

Given that all manner of data can be encapsulated in IP packets then consigned to such a system it could be that eventually a good number of the satellites orbiting our planet will become IP-enabled. Once such satellites are formed into a true network, with the ability to form routes that include satellite-to-satellite paths, global communications could become a whole lot more interesting and potentially more efficient.

Unfortunately, such systems also represent a huge prize for hackers.

Should orbiting routers become commonplace, it's only a matter of time before the evil little sods in our midst decide it would be cool to hijack such a system for their own purposes -- or simply to show that they can.

Even worse, I keep hearing the name "SkyNet" in the back of my mind.

Will extending the internet into orbit by building a huge mesh of orbiting routers have any real benefits to those of us living below?

Or are the costs of using a satellite for IP traffic simply too high and thus remain solely the domain of military and government users?

Would the potential vulnerabilities associated with such a network be too tempting for hackers to resist?

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