Even in Space... the Internet is for everyone...
Welcome to IPNsig
The InterPlanetary Networking Special Interest Group
IPNSIG has been working for over 20 years to expand the Internet into space.
IPNSIG (www.ipnsig.org) was founded in 1998 by Vint Cerf and researchers within academia and NASA/JPL. We are now a full Chapter within the Internet Society (known as the Interplanetary Chapter. We work to extend terrestrial networking into solar system space, which is consistent with the Internet Society’s objectives to grow the internet to unpopulated areas, and connect the unconnected domain—and to ensure that even in space, “The Internet is for Everyone”.
Our Vision
Expand networking to interplanetary space for the benefit of humanity.
Our Mission
- Create a common vision for an Interplanetary Network with stakeholders
- Shape the future of an Interplanetary Network by offering a narrative and a roadmap
- Promote and increase the maturity of DTN technology through its use in terrestrial and space applications
Our Plans
Highlighted Activities
Because Delay & Disruption Tolerant Networking (DTN) is such a critical component of an envisioned interplanetary communications network, our first priority historically has been to promote the development, maturity and adoption of DTN for both interplanetary and terrestrial use.
- Facilitating the development of easy-to-use DTN SDK’s for various development platforms, including areas in cloud services, first responder’s systems, IoT, security, e-commerce and more to be potentially added.
- Providing a publicly available testbed for DTN applications on the cloud platforms. This is already up and running and three member teams are setting up multiple DTN nodes on that platform. Recently, two IPNSIG teams established the first cloud-to-cloud DTN communications between disparate cloud platforms.
- Establishing ipnsig.org as an authoritative repository for technical Interplanetary Networking documentation.
- Developing an outreach program to companies engaged in the development of commercial enterprises in space.
- Continuing to educate the public by hosting at least quarterly webinars on topics of interest to the general public that align with ISOC goals.
- Becoming a global leader toward realizing an Interplanetary Network that is open, trusted, and scalable. Toward this goal, IPNSIG has recently published a strategic roadmap supported by many current and future stakeholders. Our aspirational long-term goal is for IPNSIG to function as a platform for working and managing multi-stakeholder issues.