US Military to Put Internet Router in Space

The US government has announced that it will be setting up internet routers in space, to conduct military communications. This project, called Iris (Internet Router Protocol in Space), will kick start by 2009 to allow US troops to communicate over the internet, from the remotest regions from Europe, Africa and North and South America.

The router will allow the US Defense Ministry to conduct voice, video and data communications for US troops using the internet. The goal is to eventually extend the net into space, allowing data to flow directly between satellites, rather than sending it via ground stations. According to the Defense Ministry, the program also aims to develop advanced concepts and put innovative concepts into the hands of war fighters in the field.

The specially designed router for Iris will be developed by network specialist Cisco while the geostationary satellite, IS-14, will be built by Intelsat.

The Iris project has been given the go ahead after obtaining funds from the US Department of Defense, under its Joint Capability Technology Demonstration (JCTD) program.

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According to news reports, Don Brown of Intelsat General, one of the companies who will build the platform said that Iris is to the future of satellite-based communications what Arpanet was to the creation of the internet in the 1960s. Arpanet (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network), the predecessor of the internet, was developed by the United States Department of Defense. The Iris architecture allows direct IP routing over satellite, eliminating the need for routing via a ground-based teleport, which will, according to Brown, signal the beginning of the development of the internet in space.