On 23 Jul 2010 at 8:44, Tim O'Reilly wrote:
> Once the ship has arrived in system however, the local data nets again
> have a need for precise timing. What can flavor the game more here is
> that the ship needs to sync it's communications & timing to the local
> system - without compromising its own internal systemry. So the J6
> mail-boat arrives in system, does its comms get through via radio or do
> they have a timing glitch and have to haul it in and manually port the
> comms through?
> How would that be done? Cable v Radio, but maybe the timing on the boat
> is really out and then they have to physically plug (unplug?) memory
> modules and transfer them over to a working system. (Gotta be a reason
> for those 1000t service ships after all - brain glitch in progress and I
> can't remembe r what the J6 or the service vessels are called at the
> moment) .... so just how fast is the word of your latest piratical attack
> going to spread?
actually, for any large amount of data (and that X-boat can hold some
pretty insane amounts of data, even by current standards) you'll want
a "hard-wired" connection.
A radio link has a max data rate. And it's determined by a combo of
the frequency and the amount of background noise.
Laser link, same thing, except the frequency is a *lot* higher. With
both, there are limits on using multiple links due to antennas being
near each other and the link. For most practical purposes, you are
only going to have a few "broadcast" links to/from that X--boat.
Hook up a cable and you can get one high rate link per wire pair or
optical fiber. And run them rather faster due to lowered noise.
So when the x-boat jumps in, it's going to "broadcast" a "here I am",
and once communications are establishs, it'll start sending the
really high-priority stuff on a tight beam.
Once it gets picked up by the tender, it'll transfer the rest via
cable, and a few high security memory units will be physically
transfereed along with any physical (as opposed to electronic) mail.
>From the tender, it'll get copied to X-boats bound for other systems,
and to ship's boat or the like to be ferried to the planet (along
with physical mail and the high security modules).
--
Leonard Erickson (aka shadow)
shadow at shadowgard dot com