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Revisiting the Use of the IP Protocol Stack in Deep Space: Assessment and Possible Solutions
draft-many-deepspace-ip-assessment-01

The information below is for an old version of the document.
Document Type
This is an older version of an Internet-Draft whose latest revision state is "Expired".
Expired & archived
Authors Marc Blanchet , Christian Huitema , Dean Bogdanović
Last updated 2024-09-05 (Latest revision 2024-03-04)
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IESG IESG state Expired
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This Internet-Draft is no longer active. A copy of the expired Internet-Draft is available in these formats:

Abstract

Deep space communications involve long delays (e.g., Earth to Mars is 4-20 minutes) and intermittent communications, because of orbital dynamics. Up to now, communications have been done on a layer-2 point to point basis, with sometimes the use of relays, therefore no layer-3 networking was possible. RFC4838 reports an assessment done around 25 years ago concluding that the IP protocol stack was not suitable for deep space networking. This result lead to the definition of a new protocol stack based on a store-and-forward paradigm implemented in the Bundle Protocol(BP). More recently, space agencies are planning to deploy IP networks on celestial bodies, such as Moon or Mars, ground, and vicinity. This document revisits the initial assessment of not using IP and provides solution paths to use the IP protocol stack, from IP forwarding to transport to applications to network management, in deep space communications.

Authors

Marc Blanchet
Christian Huitema
Dean Bogdanović

(Note: The e-mail addresses provided for the authors of this Internet-Draft may no longer be valid.)