Internet

The Internet is a computer network that encompasses all the interconnected networks of human society. With the advent of spacecom systems, the internet now spans multiple planets and even star systems. It shares several similarities with the real-world internet, but also many differences.

Differences

Content

The most functional parts on the modern internet must be guaranteed to be readable on anything from a high-end personal computer with an OLED monitor to a ruggedised spacecom life safety comms terminal with a text-based interface. For this reason, a protocol known as Webform Transfer Protocol (WFTP) dominates the web, which foregoes styling to allow for very low bandwidth requirements and a consistent experience across all client platforms.

Rich content, is, of course, also available; but accessed via different protocols to the WFTP “text web”. The WFTP web is the only version of the Internet that is guaranteed to be accessible across planetary links in the same star system.

Security

The internet rejects application-layer protocols such as SSL and substitutes Negotiated P2P IPsec, which negotiates an IPsec connection directly with the content service provider’s network. This has its own pros and cons.

Numbering

The Internet has completely transitioned from IPv4 to IPv6, with modern ISPs completely lacking a V4 service and modern kernels no longer compiling in V4 support. Furthermore, another difference is the availability of so-called “roaming IPs”, usually each a /64 which are allocatable from special blocks directly to devices and work similar to phone numbers.

Communications

The internet is used for text and voice communications, and has replaced conventional phone networks in most regions. Communications packets are tagged with a higher priority in order to provide a form of QoS; unlike the real-world, this extends to text messaging and emails, as well as phone calls.

A Message Precedence system is also implemented in most networks, with Routine, Priority, Immediate, Flash, and Flash Override levels, and is used for critical or emergency communications. Routers will route packets tagged at a higher level at the standard level if the packet session lacks the valid authority.