'Bundle' protocol debut

News

The first satellite to utilise the ‘bundle’ protocol in space will be unveiled by Surrey Satellite Technology at the end of this month.

The first satellite to utilise the ‘bundle’ protocol in space will be unveiled by

(SSTL) at the end of this month.

The disruption and delay tolerant networking protocol is to be pioneered onboard  the UK-DMC Satellite, an Earth observation craft built by SSTL.

NASA Glenn Research Center, SSTL and Cisco Systems are currently leading the way in creating increasingly faster and effective technologies for the Interplanetary Internet.

According to SSTL, orbital dynamics frequently cause disruptions to wireless communication networks. Through cooperative research efforts, SSTL has addressed this issue by creating the ‘bundle’ protocol.

Earlier this month, the UK-DMC satellite used delay and disruption tolerant ‘bundles’ to send an image of South Africa’s Cape of Good Hope to NASA Glenn Research Center, via SSTL’s Mission Control Centre in Guildford.

The image was downloaded in several fragments and later sent across the internet to be restored.

By fragmenting the data between two separate satellites, the 'bundle' protocol revealed minimum disruption with greater speed and efficiency of transmission.

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