Future of networking

[Antares]

Since this is more science related topic than pure computer
related i am putting this thread here.

Currently i am reading about "Delayed Tolerant Networks" (DTN):
http://www.dtnrg.org/wiki/Docs

Good overview gives this document:
http://www.dtnrg.org/docs/tutorials/warthman-1.1.pdf

Most of their research scenarios cover interplanetary
communication, but this architecure could also be applied
to many terrestrial scenarios.

Just to get a general idea of what this "DTN" is about:
They want to introduce a new OSI layer between Transport
layer and Application layer stack:

Application
Presentation
Session
Bundle (DTN layer; NEW)
Transport
Network
Data Link
Physical

This layer should deal with the fact that not every network
connection will have direct end-to-end connectivity. Thus
data packages/streams must be buffered and transmitted
when the possibility occurs.

Its very interesting to read. Obviously all this interplanetary
communication must have a realistic basis, otherwise they
won't develop it.

Some quote of a document meant for motivation why to do this:

The more obvious type of delay imposed by nature is signal
propagation time. Our inability to transmit data at speeds higher
than the speed of light means that while round-trip times in the
terrestrial Internet range from milliseconds to a few seconds,
minimum round-trip times to Mars range from 8 to 40 minutes,
depending on the planet's position. Round-trip times between Earth
and Jupiter's moon Europa run between 66 and 100 minutes.

The emphasis sounds quite funny
We'd better find some FTL communication fast, then all this is obsolete

Interplanetary communication ... i like it

[dragon]

Very interesting has lots of potential.