How Far Have We Gotten?
There is a working prototype: the CCSDS File Delivery Protocol (CFDP).
- Architecturally very similar to IPN.
- International standard, four experimental implementations.
- Baselined for Deep Impact mission, potentially others.
But CFDP was designed to support individual space flight missions, not to serve as the infrastructure for a permanent, general-purpose network.
- Addressing scheme is simple but limited.
- Application, transport, network, and reliable link layers are combined into a single protocol, which only does file transfer.
Specification of proposed IPN protocols is under way.