Announcements

Announcing 2023 Board Election Candidates

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Your 2023 Board Election Candidates

Ronny Bull

 

Dr. Bull is an active researcher and educator in the areas of systems automation, challenged/contested network
communications, high performance real-time Linux computing systems, virtualization platforms, network emulation, and
neuromorphic/cognitive systems.  He has served as a consultant and subject matter expert in these areas on multiple Department of Defense contracts with the U.S. Air Force Research Labs (AFRL). Recently his company Adirondack IT Solutions, LLC (now TCT Networks Corporation) received a NASA Small Business innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I award to investigate applying cognitive routing approaches to delay/disruption tolerant space network communications.   

Dr. Bull also serves as an adjunct professor of Computer Science and Engineering at Clarkson University with a focus in
Networking and Systems. He has been an active member of the Interplanetary Chapter (IPNSIG) of the Internet Society since 2018, and is one of the original members of the Pilot Projects Working Group (IPNSIG-PWG). Dr. Bull is passionate about involving his students in his research, and over the past few years has developed special topics Computer Science courses dedicated to IPNSIG PWG project work. The students in these courses became very active in the PWG, and made many contributions in the early
stages. Some of them are still active members today.

My goals as a board member of the Interplanetary Chapter of the Internet Society are:

1. Increase academic outreach and awareness of IPNSIG, its mission, and opportunities for student involvement and research.

2. Develop and organize an academic event that allows colleges and universities to form teams to compete and solve challenges related to Delay/Disruption Tolerant Networking and Space Communications.

3. With #2 comes the development of a large scalable emulation platform to run the challenges on, and essentially emulate
the Interplanetary Internet.

4. Continue to advise and support members of the board in regards to IPNSIG related IT solutions and services.    

 

Felix Flentge

Felix Flentge is a software engineer in the Ground Segment Engineering and Innovation Department at ESA’s Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt, Germany. He is an expert in space communication protocols and architectures, such as the CCSDS File Delivery Protocol and Disruption Tolerant Networking. Felix is actively supporting and promoting these technologies across all space mission families – from Earth Observation up to interplanetary missions. He is managing a wide range of activities from operational implementation and deployment of communication protocols and systems, inter-agency DTN demonstration activities up to academic cooperation in the areas of real-time DTN services, bundle routing and bundle protocol extensions. Felix is actively contributing to standardization and international coordination in these areas at CCSDS, IOAG and various international working groups including the IPNSIG Architecture & Governance WG.

 

As a member of the IPNSIG Board, Felix would like to contribute to the realization of the long-term vision of an interoperable and open Solar System Internet by ensuring a coherent and harmonized approach towards the SSI across the various international bodies and working groups based on input from all stakeholders. Towards the establishment of the SSI, he is convinced that we must follow an evolutionary approach where we need to start deploying DTN to space missions and space communication infrastructure (such as Moonlight and LunaNet) now but with maybe initially limited capabilities. At the same time, we need to stay flexible and open to allow these initial small-scale networks to grow into a true SSI within the next decades as technology develops.

Juan Fraire

My name is Juan Fraire. I am a researcher and professor at INRIA (France) and CONICET-UNC (Argentina) and a guest professor at Saarland University (Germany), where I teach a unique course about space informatics. For more than 15 years, I have been investigating near-Earth and deep-space networking and informatics. I have published more than 70 papers in international journals and leading conferences and a book about Delay-Tolerant Satellite Networks co-authored with Scott Burleigh (former with JPL and an IPNSIG Board Member). I am the founder and chair of the Space-Terrestrial Internetworking Workshop (STINT), and I participate in diverse joint projects with space agencies (e.g., NASA, ESA, CONAE) and companies in the space sector (e.g., D3TN, Spatiam, Skyloom). I am currently the coordinator of a French national project called STEREO, where academic and industrial partners join efforts to develop a space-terrestrial integrated Internet of Things, with exciting prospects of realizing new interplanetary exploration concepts based on IoT.
 
I have recently contributed to IPNSIG with my graphical design skills, which I developed as a hobby. I am the creator of the current IPNSIG logo, including the primary and IPNSIG academy logos. These logos were developed in coordination with Yosuke Kaneko (IPNSIG President). Also, I created the winning 100-year IPNSIG vision video, a powerful, eye-catching story-telling animation that conveys IPNSIG’s interplanetary network vision. To render the 3D material, I developed a realistic and interactive solar system and line-of-sight communication model in Unity. This 3D game engine can serve multiple future purposes for IPNSIG: a) it can be compiled for mobile devices and provided as an educational tool where users can interact and navigate over a solar system network; b) researchers could export realistic interplanetary network topologies from the tool; and c) it can be evolved into a strategy game where users can play and create resource-efficient solar system network systems. If I join the IPNSIG board, I will push toward professional-looking images and videos and keep supporting the development of interactive applications to boost the impact of IPNSIG.
 
On the academic side, I have contributed to IPNSIG by jointly organizing the STINT workshops in 2021, 2022, and 2023. This event brings together some of the most influential thought leaders in the field of data transfer, data exchange, routing, management, and security between and amongst space-based, terrestrial, and planetary network nodes via delay-tolerant networks (e.g., Yosuke Kaneko was our keynote speaker in 2022, and Vint Cerf was our keynote speaker in 2021, both are IPNSIG Board Members). I have also participated in IPNSIG’s Pilot Projects Working Group (PWG) by deploying μD3TN nodes to the test network and successfully testing interoperability with ION in cooperation with Spatiam. Furthermore, I supported IPNSIG’s Architecture and Governance Working Group (AWG) by discussing probabilistic routing schemes in the Routing Workshop Series. If I join the IPNSIG board, I will extend my participation with lectures in the IPNSIG academy events, keep organizing future STINTs workshops, and further support IPNSIG connections with related space industries such as D3TN and Skyloom.

Supporting material:
Link to IPNSIG logo design: link
Link to IPNSIG Academy logo design: link
Link to proposed IPNSIG 100-yr vision video: https://youtu.be/_VIRDvASuZ0
Link to STINT website: www.stintworkshops.org

 

 

Election Update & Event of Interest

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Election Update & Upcoming Event of Interest

Election Update

We’ve received submissions from six potential candidates. We are working to coordinate schedules and set up vetting interviews next week. After the vetting interviews complete, an election page will go up on the website, with photographs and summaries from the candidates about their backgrounds and how they plan to contribute to the Interplanetary Chapter/IPNSIG’s mission.

MadQCI in World Quantum Day

This web conference will focus upon the Madrid Quantum Computing Infrastructure (MadQCI) program is part of the European Quantum Computing Infrastructure Initiative (EuroQCI).

MadQCI is the largest Quantum Network in Europe ever.  Real world network installed in production facilities. It is part of an integrated satellite and terrestrial system spanning the whole of Europe for ultra-secure exchange of cryptographic keys (Quantum Key Distribution—QKD), as part of a secure space connectivity system. Quantum communication infrastructure (QCI) is part of the European Cybersecurity Strategy

Madrid Quantum Network: The OpenQKD project

•              Considered the “EuroQCI Ramp up”

•              European Open QKD Network

•              Testbeds to demonstrate the feasibility and maturity of Quantum Communications technologies.

The webinar will start April 21st at 0900 Eastern Daylight Time (US/Canada). Register for the webinar here: https://upm.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZItd-ytqzgrGddaDRN7fXNwmuVZFUJyUyIG#/registration

Announcements for April, 2023

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Important Announcements for April

1)     The IPNSIG Academy presentation, “Architecture and Governance of IPN Conference”, originally planned for April has been postponed to no earlier than May 5th, 2023.

2)     IPNSIG member Juan Fraire submitted the winning proposal and demonstration video illustrating our 100 year vision for a Solar System Internet. He will be working with Board members to refine the concept of the video and agree upon any finishing elements to be added. Thanks much to Juan for this work product. The video will be published when completed and reviewed
by the full Board.

3)     We want to draw your attention to a video of a conference presented by the Universities Space Research Association and the
Space Policy Institute of George Washington University. The theme of the conference was “Cis-Lunar Space: Research for Today, Training for Tomorrow”. It included sections presented by NASA, private industry and academia. Our own Vint Cerf participated in a panel discussion about the challenges and opportunities for commercialization of cis-lunar space. His presentation focused on the complexities of the policy, jurisdiction and governance space for the Solar System Internet. Vint’s talk starts at 3:34:00 in the video.     We found this to be a pretty comprehensive look at NASA’s plans for space exploration and exploitation of cis-lunar space with ties to Martian exploration. The work underway and being planned by the space industry was really encouraging. Very engaging stuff, and worth a look. The video can be found at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZF66gZFNJM&t=4s  


Announcing Board Elections

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Announcing Board Elections 2023

Members—

We will be holding elections to increase the number of IPNSIG/Interplanetary Chapter Board Members to the maximum number allowed by our By-laws (9). This election will result in the addition of two members to the Board. Rules for the election, and a timeline are posted at: https://ipnsig.org/elections-2023/

An email to the membership soliciting candidates will go out soon. Eligible members will be invited to submit resume’s, references bio information and a head shot to the Nominating Committee. The Nominating Committee will hold vetting interviews and will produce a list of approved candidates. A web page will be created with the list of candidates, their bio information and head shots, and an announcement sent to the membership. Moredetails can be found on the Elections 2023 web  page: https://ipnsig.org/elections-2023/. If you have questions, drop a note to elections@ipnsig.org. 

Thanks much,

Mike Snell

IPNSIG/Interplanetary Chapter Secretary/Treasurer

January 2023 Newsletter

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On January 9, 2023, the IPNSIG Board voted to
launch the IPNSIG Academy Working Group. Laura Chappell will head this new
working group as it focuses on two goals: continue supporting the monthly
IPNSIG Academy Keynotes and building an Essentials of Interplanetary
Internetworking course. Ms. Chappell is the Founder of Chappell
University, a best-selling author, a highly-respected presenter, the creator of
the WCNA Certification Program, and a member of the IPNSIG Technical
Documentation, IPNSIG Outreach, IPNSIG Architecture, and Governance Working
Groups. Ms. Chappell is also Vice President of the Silicon Valley Chapter of
the High Technology Crime Investigation Association.

 

The Essentials of Interplanetary Internetworking
course will be designed to inspire and educate a broad audience on space
communication technologies, policies, and governance issues. The curriculum
will be designed to promote interest and expertise in developing the
interplanetary Internet and complement the existing IPNSIG Academy Keynote
series.

 

For more information on the IPNSIG Academy
Working Group, the Essentials of Interplanetary Internetworking course, or the
IPNSIG Academy Keynote series, please visit ipnsig.org or email
us at academy@ipnsig.org.

Promotional Video Deadline Extended

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IPNSIG Promotional Video  — Submission Deadline Extended

 

Members and friends—

 

It has come to our attention that there was at least one instance
of email forwarding failure that resulted in our not receiving a submission in
response to our original request for the
IPNSIG Promotional Video. Therefore, we are extending the submission deadline
for proposals through the end of February, 2023. If you had previously made a
proposal but with no acknowledgement from us, we kindly ask you to resend the
material again. Please
note that a new email account has been created to receive your responses: promovideo@ipnsig.org.

 

IPNSIG is looking for a graphic designer willing to help us make a
short  100-year Interplanetary Network
Vision promotion video.   The video will be used to communicate with our
external stakeholders and amongst ourselves to showcase our long-term mission
and vision for interplanetary space.  

 

Video proposals welcome from all IPNSIG members (and also from non-members).
Through the selection process described below, IPNSIG will award $2K to the designer
who most successfully delivers the video product.  Note that if you are
chosen, you will work closely with the board so that the video best aligns with
the brand and vision of IPNSIG. 

 

Here, you will find a conceptual
overview of what we are looking for. We hope to see many proposals from all of
you. If you have any questions about the concept or the process, please send a
note to promovideo@ipnsig.org

Process:

    By
February 28, 2023 : Participants will document their previous work or
experience and also provide a short “sample video” for board review. 
Please send your entries to promovideo@ipnsig.org

    By March 16, 2023 : Board will
select the winning entry amongst those submitted

    By End of May, 2023 (target) : Winner
produces full-length video with feedback from the
board    

    By End of June, 2023 (target) :  Board
approval of full-length video. 

    Cash award will be provided to the
winner upon board approval. 

Kaneko,
IPNSIG President



Please help us
spread the word! Please re-Tweet our message. The link to the Tweet
is here. 

December IPNSIG Newsletter

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IPNSIG 2022 summary

Dear IPNSIG members,

As we approach the end of the calendar year, I see that our chapter has been extremely vigorous toward our vision of expanding networking to interplanetary space. 

If you recall, in 2022, we became the first space chapter, namely the Interplanetary Chapter of the Internet Society, and our work including the ones in progress are being widely noticed in the global community. 

As we reflect upon ourselves this year, we have witnessed the success of the Artemis1 mission which opened up a new era in space exploration. 
With the global momentum that is pushing our human boundaries farther into deep space, the need for a communication infrastructure continues to
rise.  The buildout of the Solar System Internet (SSI) has entered its prologue, and as the Interplanetary Chapter, we continue to seek a common network infrastructure that benefits humanity. 

In line with our vision, I would like to share some highlights of our achievements in 2022.

●   Architecture and Governance Working Group

The Architecture and Governance Working Group (AWG) was formed to assess the technical challenges in achieving a common network infrastructure and to explore the possible organizational structure that could support the development, governance and evolution of the SSI.  The AWG aims to publicize a report next year for further discussion of our work with the broader international community, so stay tuned for more information. 

●    Strategy Working Group

We have shared the “Strategy toward the Solar System Internet for humanity” report in various forums, including the NASA DTNWG, IPNSIG Academy, Eurodig 2022, STINT WS and at the recent ISOC North America-Caribbean regional call. Our work is being widely noticed and we will continue to broaden our roadmap developments in the following year. 

●    Projects Working Group

The Projects Working Group has developed during the year a Global Network to test the Bundle Protocol Suite with the usage of DTN (Delay and
Disruption tolerant networking) for the Interplanetary Internet. This network was deployed with volunteers from 15 countries and several other locations are interested in joining.

The PWG DTN network has received interest from Space Agencies, private companies and developers for testing and deploying their applications on the Interplanetary Internet. A technical laboratory for testing the DTN technologies on different hardware was developed by one of our PWG members. PWG members have also tested interoperability between different DTN implementations.

Several practical applications using DTN for communications have been developed and can be applied to Space travel and challenged environments on Earth as well, including mobile telephone messaging using DTN, reindeers tracking in the Arctic, environmental protection
technologies in underground protected caves and medical records for space exploration.

In the area of base communications technology, the PWG members have developed technologies such as IPV6 for ION DTN, ION-DTN Lora-DTN  (which is used in very challenged environments) interfaces allowing the development and expansion of this technology for real life applications. Software tools have also been developed for management and operation of the PWG network.

As a contribution to the public domain, several documents and open source software have been presented on the mentioned developments with the intention of facilitating the expansion of the DTN technologies for public usage. Public presentations have been performed about our work including presentations and collaboration with Space agencies like NASA, and private companies that are interested in Space travel, and plan to incorporate the DTN technologies to their deployments.

You can review several videos about the various conferences in the PWG blog at http://pwg.ipnsig.space

For next year 2023, the PWG plans to expand our network to Space as an immediate project.

●    Technical Documentation Working Group

The Technical Documentation Working Group works quietly, behind the scenes, to collect and organize published documents that can help the student or researcher or interested fan learn more about interplanetary networking.

At this time, the IPNSIG Zotero Library – implemented using Zotero software and backed up each month – comprises nearly 300 items, including all
IPNSIG Academy talks; all items are tagged with keywords, linked, and filed in virtual folders.  In 2023 we will move the library to a new website and we will also be reviewing all of the IPNSIG Academy chat-rooms records, looking for citations of additional resources that need to be in the library.

●    Outreach Working Group

IPNSIG Outreach Working Group has revitalized itself with a small core team of dynamic members: Laura Chappell, Ginny Spicer and Henry Danielsen. They are already making significant headway.

Laura Chappell has developed a forms-based tracking system, using SmartSheet to automate most of the processes necessary to plan, organize and execute IPNSIG Academy Webinars. Thanks, Laura!

Ginny Spicer has identified a simpler web development platform for ipnsig.org, that will greatly simplify things for content creators. A real bonus is that this platform has far superior email capabilities compared to our current hosting solution. Ginny will be presenting the new website she has
developed for ipnsig.org to the Board in January.

Finally, Henry Danielsen has volunteered to develop remote learning content for IPNSIG Academy, providing direct engagement with educators and
students, teaching them the basics of DTN.

We are really excited to have these great folks on board, and are looking forward to what they will accomplish in 2023. 

●    IPNSIG Academy

IPNSIG launched its IPNSIG Academy events in May of 2022. We have met our goal of producing a webinar each month – a total of eight webinars in 2022. Attendance has been good, with a lot of questions during the Q&A session following each presentation. We have also had a lot of views of our video recordings. You can access the video recordings and presentation materials by using the IPNSIG Zotero library, as mentioned above, or you can check out the IPNSIG Academy Events page on our website. The table there lists past and future IPNSIG Academy webinars, with links to video recordings and presentation materials as they become available.

Bigger and better things are planned for IPNSIG Academy in 2023! Not only are we lining up some really great speakers, but we also want to expand IPNSIG Academy to more directly engage the educational community. More details about that in a future newsletter!

Lastly, I wish everyone a very merry holiday season and all the best for the New Year.

Kaneko

 

IPNSIG President 

Upcoming events of Interest

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Upcoming Events of Interest 

The first upcoming event that you all might be interested in attending is the Internet Society’s (ISOC) North America Regional call scheduled for December 13, 2022, at 1800 UTC. This will be an opportunity to see updates from other ISOC Chapters in the North American region. It will also be an opportunity to see our President, Kaneko, provide an update on IPNSIG’s (remember, we are also the Interplanetary Chapter of ISOC) vision and activities for calendar year 2022.

Announcements about the meeting have already been sent by ISOC. If you haven’t already registered for it, please do so here: https://isoc.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIkcuGrrToqGdLiKWTJSTxyHxkPCVUTO-Gy

A more detailed view of IPNSIG’s activities for calendar 2022 will be published near the end of this month.

The second upcoming event you might be interested in is the January IPNSIG Webinar, which comes up very quickly after the holidays, on January 4, 2023. This webinar will feature IPNSIG Board Member Dr. Keith Scott. Keith will provide an overview of the Consultative Committee on Space Data Systems (CCSDS—the global standards setting organization for civilian space flight communications). Keith is uniquely qualified to speak about CCSDS. He has been involved in the development of DTN since 1998 and is currently the chair for the Space Internetworking Systems Delay Tolerant Networking Working Group for CCSDS.

More information about the January IPNSIG Webinar will be published soon, including registration links and a presentation summary.

IPNSIG Promotional Video Announcement

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IPNSIG Promotional Video  — Announcement of Opportunity

 

IPNSIG is looking for a graphic designer willing to help us make a
short  100-year Interplanetary Network Vision promotion video.   The
video will be used to communicate with our external stakeholders and amongst
ourselves to showcase our long-term mission and vision for interplanetary
space.  

 

Video proposals welcome from all IPNSIG members (and also from
non-members). Through the selection process described below, IPNSIG will award $2K
to the designer who most successfully
delivers the video product.  Note that if you are chosen, you will work
closely with the board so that the video best aligns with the brand and vision
of IPNSIG. 

 

Here, you will find a conceptual overview of what we are looking
for. We hope to see many proposals from all of you. If you have any questions
about the concept or the process, please send a note to secretariat@ipnsig.org

Process:

    By November 30, 2022 : Participants will document their
previous work or experience and also provide a short “sample video”
for board review.  Please send your entries to secretariat@ipnsig.org

    By December 16, 2022 : Board will select the winning entry amongst those submitted

    By End of February, 2023 (target) : Winner produces full-length video with feedback from the board    

    By End of April, 2023 (target) :  Board approval of full-length video. 

    Cash award will be provided to the winner upon board approval. 

 Kaneko, IPNSIG President


Please help us spread the word! Please re-Tweet our message. The link to the Tweet is here.