Background
NASA's affiliation with other National Space Agencies and international contractor locations fosters cooperative efforts between NASA and the international space community. NASA's goal to enhance international communication and resource sharing continues to deliver unprecedented technology and enhanced information systems capabilities worldwide. NISN's International Interagency Telecommunications (IIT) function sponsors evolutionary concepts and ideals designed to improve service and performance for the international space community as a whole, while enhancing the flexibility, reliability, and expandability of the NISN network. Studies conducted by a team of government and contractor personnel were used to determine the feasibility and merit including new international space programs and the International Partner agencies within the NISN sphere of operation. As cutting-edge technology continues to advance, NISN's IIT programmatic vision for the future provides increased network capabilities, including a significant increase in advanced technology testing, to aid in the development of more advanced support and lower costs to the users.
Overview of the IIT Network
Formerly, ordering common carrier circuits for remote locations satisfied International
communication requirements. The expense involved in provisioning these individual
circuits became prohibitive, but international requirements continued to expand.
To reduce costs and increase efficiency and flexibility, the NISN IIT project
established digital backbone satellite and terrestrial/undersea cable circuits
between NASA and various International locations. These gateways are located
at NASA Centers and at International Partner Agency facilities for the transport
of data, voice, fax, electronic mail, and video. NISN IIT provides international
services to 15 countries, and range in speeds between 9.6Kbps to 52Mbps. These
services traverse via a combination of terrestrial and satellite technologies.
A list of international locations that have been established can be found in
Appendix E.
Expansion of the NISN international network is accomplished using one or more
of the following approaches:
a. Sharing NISN's backbone circuit extensions with International Partner Agency
networks,
b. Providing NISN tail circuit extensions from a NASA site to an International
Partner Agency location, and
c. Providing NISN Special Services circuits tailored to a specific set of customer
requirements.
Deep Space Network (DSN) Circuits
The vast majority of the international services are procured end-to-end. Even though there can be several carriers and Local Exchange Carriers (LECs) involved, NISN contracts with one main carrier and that carrier subcontracts with the other LECs. However, there are exceptions to that rule. For instance, the circuits procured to Madrid, Spain and Canberra, Australia for the DSN are purchased as half-circuits only. This means that the domestic carrier and foreign end carrier meet halfway. NISN procures the domestic half and the foreign customer procures the international half. This is due to international treaties that have been established between the USA and these governments.