Super Wide Access Network
Welcome to Solaris, traveller! This is a slower-than-light science fantasy set in our own solar system.
About Solaris | Guide to Solaris | Prologue
About Solaris | Guide to Solaris | Prologue
The Super Wide Access Network, or SWAN, is a network accessible even in deep space. SWAN is accessed primarily through dedicated terminals aboard spaceports and spacecraft. Even if a traveller never touches a SWAN terminal, any data their personal devices recieve in space has been bundled, transported, and unpacked by SWAN.
To be able to serve data even in the remotest corners of traversable space, SWAN cannot handle large amounts of data. While the modern SWAN protocol technically supports images, to this day most SWAN terminals can only recieve text and it is considered impolite to upload large images.
Architecture
SWAN is a lacework consisting of independently operated servers usually referred to as nodes. Whenever a new message is posted to a SWAN node, the node forwards the message to other nodes it is in contact with. Jumping from node to node, a message can eventually spread throughout the entire Sol System. In the early days when SWAN was limited to Saturn's orbital space, this simple architecture was adequate. Bridging the gap between planets proved much more difficult. The solution was for local authorities to fund specialized long range transceivers that could cast signals much further than any civilian device. Because of this decision, SWAN has the downsides of both centralized and fully distributed networks. Data congestion at long range transceivers can cause slowdowns as messages wait their turn to be sent. On the other hand, because each node is independently operated, connecting to one with poor connectivity or limited hardware could cause your terminal to become intolerably slow.SWAN in use
Spaceport announcements
Receiving news in space
Sending updates to friends and family
Forwarding data between planets
Each SWAN terminal has a unique address so that it can send and receive mail. People using the terminal can subscribe to topics served by the local nodes.
Outer Space[ show ]
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Someone sure has their panties in a bunch over a minor inconvenience... Because this is the sort of thing I do for a living, I'm curious how people access their personal data over these terminals? And if someone with the right skills could access others' data through them?
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Old school SWAN terminals are built for public use and therefore not secure. If there's anything private that needs to be communicated over terminal, you'd sent it somewhere secure and send a non-specific message about it like "You have a new message in your portal." to the terminal. The interplanetary interlace isn't as developed as ours so there's less personal data being sent. But I can easily imagine space pirates and more privacy-minded individuals sending coded messages over SWAN terminals, or communicating through unsent dead drops.
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