Wireless Communications in Space

About this technology

Overview

NASA and the U.S. Department of Defense jointly commissioned the research and development of a technology solution to address the challenges and requirements of communicating with their spacecraft. The project yielded a broad suite of protocols specifically designed for space-based communications, known as Space Communications Protocol Standards (SCPS). Engineers from Global Science & Technology, Inc. (GST), were the principal developers of the SCPS suite of protocols. GST commercialized the transport protocol component of the SCPS suite, which had been developed through funding by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center at the start of the original research and development project. This funding was critical in building the reference implementation that served as the blueprint for what eventually would become SkipWare,R the commercial implementation of the SCPS transport protocol. Global Protocols, Inc., distributes SkipWare as a software license and as an embedded service on the hardware platforms of Comtech EF Data. SkipWare mitigates or eliminates the obstacles associated with wireless and satellite transport and provides efficient, reliable transmission over these media. The technology has been sold to customers in the satellite, terrestrial wireless, and wireless telemetry markets.