Oct 23, 2020 23:00:00

'Father of the Internet' who laid the foundation of the Internet on Earth talks about 'Interplanetary Internet'

Nowadays,

even network connection environments that use satellite communications have appeared, and it can be said that the Internet can be used almost anywhere on the earth. However, if you try to use the current Internet Protocol for interplanetary communication, problems such as distance will come up. Vint Cerf , known as one of the 'fathers of the Internet,' answers about the history and future of the interplanetary Internet that he has been working on for many years.

Vint Cerf's Plan for Building An Internet in Space | Quanta Magazine
https://www.quantamagazine.org/vint-cerfs-plan-for-building-an-internet-in-space-20201021/

The International Space Station and the Earth are connected by wireless and Internet protocols, and the 'Internet in outer space' is already a reality. However, when connecting planets that are extremely far apart via the Internet, the distance between the planets and the position of the planets are issues that stand in the way.

For example, suppose you want to establish an interplanetary internet between Earth and Jupiter. The distance between Earth and Jupiter is about 590.7 million to 965.8 million km, which is a distance that takes 32 minutes 50 seconds to 53 minutes 41 seconds even at the speed of light. Furthermore, since both the Earth and Jupiter rotate and revolve, depending on their positional relationship, the planets sandwiched between the Earth and Jupiter, or the Earth itself or Jupiter itself, may interfere with wireless communication as obstacles. Since the mainstream route control protocol on the Internet on the earth adopts a system that starts recalculating the route when a connection interruption is detected, the route recalculation is sporadic for interplanetary level delays and interruptions. The communication itself does not work properly.

Vint Cerf, known as one of the 'fathers of the Internet' for playing an important role in the creation of the

TCP / IP protocol, has been working on this interplanetary Internet for many years. Around the 1970s, when Surf shaped TCP / IP, memory was expensive, so he took the approach of 'don't save packets if the connection is lost.' Since this approach causes recalculations for the interplanetary Internet as mentioned above, Mr. Surf is a planet that incorporates measures against delays and interruptions, which is different from the current ' Internet Protocol ' that assumes a seamless data path. In 2003, we developed the ' Bundle Protocol ' protocol for the Internet.

Mr. Surf, who continued to work on the interplanetary Internet, is 77 years old as of October 2020. I had a new coronavirus infection in March 2020, but in April I was completely cured and returned to the activity of spreading the Internet to the world as Google's chief Internet evangelist. Mr. Surf answered various questions about the interplanetary Internet of the online magazine Quanta magazine on science and so on.

Surf told Quanta magazine that it was

Adrian Hooke , then JPL and NASA headquarters, who brought the idea for the interplanetary Internet. Regarding the current state of the interplanetary Internet, NASA says it is implementing a plan to 'reuse the protocol installed in the abandoned spacecraft and increase the number of nodes that can be used.'

In addition, one of the efforts related to the interplanetary Internet was an experiment in which an astronaut on the International Space Station remotely controls a robot vehicle in Germany. For example, when a robot vehicle on Mars is remotely controlled from the earth, it takes about 20 minutes for the signal emitted from the earth to reach the robot vehicle. Therefore, it is impossible for the Earth to deal with unexpected behavior of vehicles on Mars. The experiments conducted on the ISS assumed such a situation, but the distance between the ISS and the earth was about 400 km, so it was only successful.

Also, regarding the user experience of the interplanetary Internet, although there are currently only modes such as alternating communication, transceiver-like mode, and mail-like mode, it will not be long before interactive communication becomes possible. Mr. Surf replied that it would be. Regarding the remaining problems, he said, 'Implementing the protocol is different from actually using it', so that people who design space missions can be convinced that 'the developed protocol is fully verified'. He said he was making an effort.

Surf said the interplanetary Internet, like the current Internet, is just an infrastructure, just a medium for people to collaborate and discover something together, and will eventually be commercialized. To the question, 'such or delay-tolerant networking protocol that there is to be back available? As Bundle Protocol on earth', across from the Scandinavian peninsula north to the Kola Peninsula Lapland are grazing in, walking around radio They answered that they have been used for follow-up surveys of reindeer that enter and leave the communication environment, and for marine research where research devices cannot maintain constant communication.

In addition, Mr. Surf said that delay-tolerant networks are useful in large-scale disasters where communication functions are limited, and why not replace the current TCP / IP with a delay-tolerant network protocol on the earth? In response to the question, 'It may be suitable for mobile environments, but not very suitable for wired environments,' and recommended the network protocol ' QUIC ' that Google has implemented since 2013. I will.