Cisco Routers in Space!
Cisco announced more details on its plans to bring IP routers to the world of satellites (or shall we say ‘solar system of satellites’?).
At its Cisco Live user conference last week, the company said that it was about to launch a trial run of its Internet Routers In Space (IRIS) program with the US defense department. READ MORE AND VIEW VIDEO:
The company has a smaller test IP router in space already, but it is ramping up to try and a make a real, next generation market for itself
The router will be built for redundancy (well, it’s a long way to go to fix it!), so it includes two routers and two modems for remote servicing.
It measures about 24 inches by 18 inches by 18 inches and is expected to have a throughput of about 100Mbps. That’s small potatoes by land lovers’ standards, but is “unprecedented in orbit,” Cisco says.
And, you’ll be interested to note that it will include Cisco’s full IOS software. It was also built to sip lightly on the power supply as the satellite must operate on 5,000 to 7,000 watts of power from its solar panels and can only spare a few of them for the hitchhiking router.
