First Deep Space Internet Test A Success

NASA says it has successfully tested the first deep space communications network modeled on the Internet.

Working as part of a NASA-wide team, engineers from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., used software called Disruption-Tolerant Networking, or DTN, to transmit dozens of space images to and from a NASA science spacecraft located about 20 million miles from Earth.

"This is the first step in creating a totally new space communications capability, an interplanetary Internet," says Adrian Hooke, team lead and manager of space-networking architecture, technology and standards at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

NASA and Vint Cerf, a vice president at Google Inc., in Mountain View, Calif., partnered 10 years ago to develop this software protocol. The DTN sends information using a method that differs from the normal Internet's Transmission-Control Protocol/Internet Protocol, or TCP/IP, communication suite, which Cerf co-designed.

The Interplanetary Internet must be robust to withstand delays, disruptions and disconnections in space. Glitches can happen when a spacecraft moves behind a planet, or when solar storms and long communication delays occur. The delay in sending or receiving data from Mars takes between three-and-a-half to 20 minutes at the speed of light.

Unlike TCP/IP on Earth, the DTN does not assume a continuous end-to-end connection. In its design, if a destination path cannot be found, the data packets are not discarded. Instead, each network node keeps the information as long as necessary until it can communicate safely with another node. This store-and-forward method, similar to basketball players safely passing the ball to the player nearest the basket means information does not get lost when no immediate path to the destination exists. Eventually, the information is delivered to the end user.

"In space today, an operations team must manually schedule each link and generate all the commands to specify which data to send, when to send it, and where to send it," says Leigh Torgerson, manager of the DTN Experiment Operations Center at JPL. "With standardized DTN, this can all be done automatically."

Engineers began a month-long series of DTN demonstrations in October. Data were transmitted using NASA's Deep Space Network in demonstrations occurring twice a week. Engineers use NASA's Epoxi spacecraft as a Mars data-relay orbiter. Epoxi is on a mission to encounter Comet Hartley 2 in two years. There are 10 nodes on this early interplanetary network. One is the Epoxi spacecraft itself and the other nine, which are on the ground at JPL, simulate Mars landers, orbiters and ground mission-operations centers.

This month-long experiment is the first in a series of planned demonstrations to qualify the technology for use on a variety of upcoming space missions. In the next round of testing, a NASA-wide demonstration using new DTN software loaded on board the International Space Station is scheduled to begin next summer.

In the next few years, the Interplanetary Internet could enable many new types of space missions. Complex missions involving multiple landed, mobile and orbiting spacecraft will be far easier to support through the use of the Interplanetary Internet. It also could ensure reliable communications for astronauts on the surface of the moon.

The Deep Impact Networking Experiment is sponsored by the Space Communications and Navigation Office in NASA's Space Operations Mission Directorate in Washington. NASA's Science Mission Directorate and Discovery Program in Washington provided experimental access to the Epoxi spacecraft. The Epoxi mission team provided critical support throughout development and operations.

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New Filter Clears Up Fiber Optic Communications

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory have come up with a potentially perfect way to sort and distribute the massive amounts of data that travel daily over optical fibers to people throughout the world. The new technology, a three-dimensional photonic crystal add-drop filter, promises greatly enhanced transmission of multiple wavelength channels (wavelengths of light) traveling along the same optical fiber.

The innovative filter is a significant achievement in the effort to develop all-optical transport networks that would eliminate electrical components from optical transmission links and guarantee virtually flawless data reception to end users of the Internet and other fiber-based telecommunications systems.

“There are up to 160 wavelength channels traveling through an optical fiber at the same time,” says Rana Biswas, an Ames Laboratory physicist and one of the developers of the new add-drop filter. “That means a lot of dialogue is going on simultaneously.” Biswas, who is also an Iowa State University adjunct associate professor of physics and astronomy and electrical and computer engineering, explained that as information is transported over these multiple channels, it’s necessary to drop off individual wavelength channels at different points on the fiber. At the same time, it’s essential to be able to add data streams into unfilled wavelength channels.

“When the data being transported in multiple frequency channels over an optical fiber comes to a receiving station, you want to be able to pick off just one of those frequencies and send it to an individual end user,” said Biswas. “That’s where these 3-D photonic crystals come into play.”

Biswas and his colleagues, Kai-Ming Ho, an Ames Laboratory senior physicist and an ISU Distinguished Professor of Liberal Arts and Sciences; Gary Tuttle, an ISU associate professor of electrical and computer engineering and a researcher at the university’s Microelectronics Research Center; and Preeti Kohli, a former Iowa State Ph.D. student now at Micron in Manassas, Va. successfully demonstrated that 3-D photonic crystals could serve as add-drop filters, providing greatly enhanced data transmission.

To prove their concept, the researchers used a three-dimensional, microwave-scale photonic crystal constructed from layered alumina rods and containing a full bandgap – a wavelength range in which electromagnetic waves cannot transmit. Just as electronic bandgaps prevent electrons within a certain energy range from passing through a semiconductor, photonic crystals create photonic bandgaps that confine light of certain wavelengths.

The add-drop filter created by the Ames Laboratory team contains an entrance waveguide and an exit waveguide created by removing rod segments from the layered photonic crystal. A one-rod segment separates the two waveguides. (A waveguide is a system or material that can confine and direct electromagnetic waves.) A defect cavity is located one unit cell above the waveguide layer. The waveguides can communicate through the cavity, allowing a specific wavelength frequency to be selected from the input waveguide and transmitted to the output waveguide, excluding other input frequencies and resulting in near 100 percent efficiency for the drop frequencies.

The idea of using photonic crystals for add-drop filters is not new. Since the mid 1990s, many groups worldwide have been working to develop the technology with two-dimensional photonic crystals.

“It works,” Biswas says, “but there is loss of some intensity to the end user because 2-D photonic crystals don’t confine the light completely. For example, in a phone conversation, the voices would dim out. But with 3-D photonic crystal add-drop filters, the communication would be clear.”

Although Biswas, Kohli, Tuttle and Ho have shown that 3-D photonic crystals would make highly efficient add-drop filters, there are still problems to address. Getting the size of the photonic crystals down to work at the wavelengths used for Internet communications – 1.5 microns – is the big challenge. The Ames Lab group now has some of these photonic crystals working in that range, but to make these controlled structures with one input, another output and a defect … that definitely takes some work. A future direction is to simplify the design of the add-drop filter by reducing the layers in the photonic crystal – perhaps having all the action happen in one layer.

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New 'Connected Vehicle' Proving Center Opens in Ann Arbor

Michigan state government officials and executives from the transportation, manufacturing, automotive and telecommunications sectors were on hand for the dedication of the
Connected Vehicle Proving Center (CVPC) in Ann Arbor.

The CVPC, funded by the state of Michigan, has been created through a strategic alliance between the Center for Automotive Research (CAR) and the Connected Vehicle Trade Association (CVTA). The CVPC will be a proving ground for testing, evaluating, and showcasing connected vehicle systems.

The center will integrate connected vehicles, smart roadway infrastructure and a broad range of telecommunication technologies. In addition, the CVPC will provide expertise in evaluation design, data storage and analysis, and information sharing.

Once fully operational, the CVPC will serve as an incubator that offers an advanced test and evaluation environment the can be accessed by original-equipment manufacturers, automotive suppliers, transportation agencies, and communications companies. Ultimately, the center will serve as a catalyst for growing the connected vehicle industry, thereby attracting related technical and engineering jobs to Michigan, the center says in a statement.

"Michigan's economic plan is all about building on our heritage to create cutting-edge jobs," says Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm. "This project is an excellent example of how innovation can fuel economic growth in our state."

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Engineers Rescue Aging Satellites, Saving Millions

Researchers have used a new technique to save $60 million for broadcasters by extending the service life of two communications satellites.

The technique works by applying an advanced simulation and a method that equalizes the amount of propellant in a series of fuel tanks so that the satellite consumes all of the fuel before being retired from service.

The two satellites would have been shut down prematurely and wasted remaining fuel if not for the new technique developed by researchers from Purdue University and Lockheed Martin Corp., says Steven Collicott, a Purdue professor of aeronautics and astronautics.

Communications satellites, which are maintained in proper orbit about 22,500 miles above Earth by firing small rocket thrusters, must be replaced shortly before they run out of fuel. Enough fuel must remain to get the satellites out of orbit to make room for their replacements.
Some aging communications satellites are each equipped with four fuel tanks. If one of the tanks empties before the others, the satellite loses control and should be decommissioned, wasting the remaining fuel in the other tanks, says Boris Yendler, senior thermal system analyst at Lockheed Martin Mission Services in Sunnyvale, Calif.

The Purdue and Lockheed Martin engineers not only determined precisely how much fuel remained in each tank, but they also used a technique to "rebalance," or equalize, propellant levels in all of the tanks. The engineers kept the twin satellites operating an additional six months, which translates into about $60 million in revenue for the broadcast companies that owned the satellites, Collicott said.

This work, led by Yendler, represents the first time such a fuel gauging and rebalancing has been carried out in commercial communications satellites," Collicott says.

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Intelsat to Test Internet Routing in Space for the U.S. Military

Intelsat General Corp., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Intelsat Ltd, today announced that it has been selected for an industry-government collaboration to demonstrate the viability of conducting military communications through an Internet router in space.

The Department of Defense project to test Internet routing in space (IRIS) will be managed by Intelsat General, and the payload will convert to commercial use once testing has been completed. The IRIS project is one of seven projects -- out of hundreds of applicants -- funded and announced infiscal 2007 as a Joint Capability Technology Demonstration (JCTD) by the US Department of Defense, the contractor says.

Intelsat says it is the first commercial satellite company to be awarded a JCTD program. The IRIS JCTD is a three-year program that allows the DOD to collaborate with Intelsat General and its industry team to demonstrate and assess the utility of the IRIS capability.

Cisco Systems will provide commercial networking software for the on-board router. In addition, SEAKR Engineering Inc. of Denver, Colo., will manufacture the space-hardened router and integrate it into the IRIS payload.

Concerto Advisors, a financial advisory firm based in Iowa City, Iowa, is organizing equity financing for a new company to provide the funds to design, build and operate the equipment used for the demonstration. Following the JCTD testing period, Concerto's affiliate will own the equipment, and Intelsat will operate the equipment on Concerto's behalf to provide services for government and commercial users.

"IRIS extends the Internet into space, integrating satellite systems and the ground infrastructure for warfighters, first responders and others who need seamless and instant communications," says Bill Shernit, president and CEO of Intelsat General. "IRIS will enable U.S. and allied military forces with diverse satellite equipment to seamlessly communicate over the Internet from the most remote regions of the world."

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Think That Conversation From Your Office Phone Is Private? Think Again

News reports thata Wal-Mart employee taped telephone conversations between a New York Times reporter and other Wal-Mart employees brings to light the practice of corporations who require employees to consent to company surveillance of calls made through company systems and equipment.

Wal-Mart officials have said the employee in the recently reported case was not authorized to make the recordings and adds that company policy restricts monitoring of employee communications to instances in which fraud or criminal activity is suspected, according to a Vanderbilt University statement.

However, that policy is not a requirement. "We know from recent surveys by groups such as the American Management Association and others that many firms do routinely monitor employee communications that employees might think are private, without cause of suspicion," says Bruce Barry, professor of management and sociology. "This means workers, especially in the private sector, work under the threat that their expressive activity is being watched, which has the effect of chilling free expression that might have nothing to do with the corporation, or that might involve whistleblowing regarding corporate misbehavior."

Barry has focused recent research on free expression in and around the workplace from legal, managerial, and ethical perspectives. He is the author of a soon-to-be-published book on the subject, Speechless: The Erosion of Free Expression in the American Workplace.

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Device Combats Hearing Loss, Says Research Institute

Addressing what it calls a spiraling hearing-loss epidemic, developers at the Hollins Communications Research Institute (HCRI) have introduced a hand-held safety device, Ear3, that signals when hazardous noise puts users at risk of permanent hearing damage.

According to the institute's executive director, Dr. Ronald Webster, Ear3 was created to reduce the incidence of people experiencing hearing loss from repeated exposure to workplace noise, loud music, machinery and recreational equipment.

The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders reports that 28 million Americans have some hearing loss, with more than one-third attributed to noise-induced causes.

"As consumers, we use bicycle helmets for head protection, sunglasses for eye protection, and seatbelts for accident protection. We need to take our hearing just as seriously," Webster says.

Today, audiologists are not only treating the growing senior population, but are seeing more people in their 30's and 40's than ever before. In addition, the surge in MP3 players and loud car stereo use is contributing to increased hearing loss among youth.

A February study commissioned by the American Speech- Language-Hearing-Association revealed that more than half of high school students surveyed who used MP3 players reported at least one symptom of hearing loss.

The National Institutes of Health reports that regular exposure to sound pressure at 85 decibels (such as restaurant or city traffic noise) for an extended length of time can produce permanent hearing damage. Noises created by motorcycles, mowers and loud MP3 players are far more damaging with limited unprotected exposure.

Webster points out that few people realize the risk of exposure to hazardous sounds. That's where the Ear3 can help. Unlike other devices that measure decibel levels, Ear3 is a hearing-threat detector that signals when noise exceeds safe listening levels.

About the size of an iPod, Ear3 is designed with a sound chamber that simulates a human ear canal for accurate sound readings when using ear buds or headsets, and when evaluating sounds from more distant sources.

HCRI is a non-profit organization based in Roanoke, Virginia that develops innovative stuttering treatments and advances in hearing assistance. The Ear3 device, developed by HCRI, is being produced and distributed by Ear3 LLC.

Colored lights indicate sound safety levels so the user can take immediate action by using ear plugs, adjusting sound volume, or changing environments. For more information on the Ear3, visit http://www.ear3.info