The Martian Internet!

[cantab]

Well what you've got is a link with very long latency and somewhat limited overall data rate. That means TCP is going to want replacing with something more suited to the task. Most likely the lower layers will incorporate extensive error correction, to minimise the rate of uncorrectable errors. Even then it will often be preferable to tolerate an error rather than endure another round trip.

With that taken care of, I think many applications protocols will work fine provided they don't assume a quick link. Some adaptations will be needed, in particular I see a need to "send first, ask questions later". For example let's say an application needs to log in to a server, perform some actions, then log out. On Earth it would be fine to try and log in, get confirmation the login is successful, then send the actions, get confirmation the actions worked, then log out. But on the Earth-Mars link you send the whole operation in one bunch; if the login is valid then the whole process requires only one round trip, and if the login fails the recipient server just abandons the rest of the data.

As far as communication goes, well email is fine, it was never meant to be instant. (Maybe the presence of the Earth-Mars link would finally get ignorant managers to realise that and stop complaining that they haven't got an email that was sent 30 seconds ago!) Other protocols could be contrived.

As far as information-browsing goes, well for stuff that's regularly updated, yeah, caching. But for things that are a lot of data but don't need to change, for example movies and music, never underestimate the bandwidth of a Mars Colonial Transporter full of drives. A tonne of drives would hold about 10 petabytes at current storage densities, that's enough to load up a huge chunk of the films, TV shows, and music that have been produced and ship them off to Mars for the colonists to watch. And then you're not wasting the radio link transmitting data that hasn't changed since the 1960s.

One thing I do wonder, once the internet link and local archives are established, is what the business model will be. If today's corporations got their way then access to the archives is on a rent, don't buy, basis, probably similar to Netflix where as long as you keep paying your sub you can watch what you like, but let it lapse and you have nothing. And the cached websites would be those willing to pay to have the Mars-cache.

But it could go the other way. The Martians could reject such ideas. The cached websites could be what *they* want to have cached. Downloads from the archives could be sold, or they could even void Earth copyrights and make it free.

[kerbiloid]

On 03.09.2016 at 1:09 AM, grawl said:

These fast trading needs might drive investment for the development of entangled particles based communication protocols.

I wonder if those could be faster than light ? Virtually instantaneous ?

No, entagled particles communication is also limited by the light speed.

This situation just also means that a huge corporative shark with Earth and Martian offices will always keep advantages over lone wolves.

Edited September 4, 2016 by kerbiloid

[grawl]

On 04/09/2016 at 9:00 AM, kerbiloid said:

No, entagled particles communication is also limited by the light speed.

Thats a bummer, it complicates things a lot... Damn you science !! 

On 04/09/2016 at 9:00 AM, kerbiloid said:

This situation just also means that a huge corporative shark with Earth and Martian offices will always keep advantages over lone wolves.

Isn't that already the case on Earth ? Where big money corporations can develop fast agorithms and build infrastructures (WAN) to communicate even faster whereas the lone wolf cannot build a fiber between his house and the stock market.

 

Here is my (barely thought up) point of view on the martian internet matter :

I take the hypotesis that the first real martian colonies will be dependencies of "big money corporations" (emphasize on the quotes), because only them can afford the investment.

These companies will need to communicate with these dependencies ( or outposts, colonies, call them what you want  ). So each one will develop and build their own private technology.

Soon (or later, depending on some kind of critical mass) after that the need will grow for parallel communication between the different corporates outposts on Mars. Different places with different needs will adopt one or another of the communication technologies, based on mutual interest, needs, and/or technical efficiency. Some will merge, some will disappear, and some others will keep as if nothing's going on. Much like here on earth.

 

We might not see a real martian internet before long;

Or not, maybe Mars is such a harsh environment colonists will be forced to inter-communicate from the start.

 

As you can see, I'm torned apart ^^  Waddaya' think ?

Edited September 5, 2016 by grawl