Interstellar Communications in Traveller

[DeHammer]

I did a search on this subject and see some people are using some alternate solutions in their games. But I would like to comply with the general idea that ships in jump bubbles are not able to communicate with the 'outside' universe, and that interstellar communications via quantum entanglement or other such theoretic means simply doesn't exist in the Traveller universe. Thus, communications are limited to carrying data aboard ships that traverse charted space via jumps.

With this thought in mind.... it makes sense to me that the various Empires in charted space would be very keen to master a communications network that allows for the fastest possible communications. I would think they would have established a reliable network of static routes with the fastest ships (most parsecs per jump). In addition they would also have a more dynamic and casual network of data flow where any ship moving from one system to the next is also carrying a data 'package' to be dumped and updated at each system they stop at.

My question is... what ships are capable of the farthest jumps, but small enough that they could reasonably be considered 'dedicated' to just carrying data packets between systems. For instance... an Imperial Battleship could jump 4 parsecs in a week... making it capable of moving that data faster & farther than many other ships. But using a battleship as a 'mail carrier' isn't practical if other ships exist that could make that same jump without moving an entire battleship.

So if you were setting up such a dedicated data network using fast jump ships in your Traveller universe, which ships would you use for this? Keep in mind, I'm looking for more of a dedicated military (high priority) network, in addition to the casual flow of data that happens as ship naturally move around.

 

[WHULorigan]

* Type TJ-Imperiallines Transport (J6 / 2000 ton).
* IN Fleet Courier (J6 / 400 ton).

Variants can be designed around these basic designs.

 

[DeHammer]

* Type TJ-Imperiallines Transport (J6 / 2000 ton).
* IN Fleet Courier (J6 / 400 ton).

Variants can be designed around these basic designs.

Awesome! Thank you.

 

[rinku]

It's more or less a given that all megacorps operate private high jump mail systems. Note that, as with the X-Boats, the quickest way is to securely transmit the data to a waiting ship that jumps as soon as possible.

Now... that does NOT mean J-6 is the most practical jump drive to use. If the information has to securely get from point to point, it may be... but if the information needs to be disseminated along the route, you may be better making J-3 or J-4 jumps.

The X-Boat network concept is robust enough to act as a model, although it does NOT have to have to involve X-Boats. You could set it up with more expensive conventional J-4 ships. The X-Boat is a bit of a 1977 Book 2 artifact; later editions (and definitely MGT) let you build 100 ton J-4 ships with maneuver drives. But the idea of a message ship that jumps in to a base (possibly a mobile one), hands over the data and then preps for the return jump while another ship or ships jump out, is solid.

But in addition, there's no reason other than economy of scale why the same ship design HAS to service all parts of the network. There are parts of the Spinward Marches where a single J-6 avoids two or even three X-Boat jumps; most likely there are priority couriers servicing those... but which are only justified for special cases. And which may well not justify a "pony express" network - those may well jump, refuel and jump again with the same ship travelling from end to end, or just shuttling from one end to the other on a two week cycle.

 

[Terry Mixon]

It's more or less a given that all megacorps operate private high jump mail systems. Note that, as with the X-Boats, the quickest way is to securely transmit the data to a waiting ship that jumps as soon as possible.

Now... that does NOT mean J-6 is the most practical jump drive to use. If the information has to securely get from point to point, it may be... but if the information needs to be disseminated along the route, you may be better making J-3 or J-4 jumps.

The X-Boat network concept is robust enough to act as a model, although it does NOT have to have to involve X-Boats. You could set it up with more expensive conventional J-4 ships. The X-Boat is a bit of a 1977 Book 2 artifact; later editions (and definitely MGT) let you build 100 ton J-4 ships with maneuver drives. But the idea of a message ship that jumps in to a base (possibly a mobile one), hands over the data and then preps for the return jump while another ship or ships jump out, is solid.

But in addition, there's no reason other than economy of scale why the same ship design HAS to service all parts of the network. There are parts of the Spinward Marches where a single J-6 avoids two or even three X-Boat jumps; most likely there are priority couriers servicing those... but which are only justified for special cases. And which may well not justify a "pony express" network - those may well jump, refuel and jump again with the same ship travelling from end to end, or just shuttling from one end to the other on a two week cycle.

It might be worthwhile considering having a two-stage network. The backbone could be J6 while the branches are J3 or J4. You get fast speeds to disseminate the information but only along the backbone.

 

[rinku]

Yeah, but my point is that very often there's no suitable place to put a base at exactly 6 parsecs - 5 or sometimes 4 parsecs may make more sense.

It's more the base placement that matters than what actual ships are doing the jumps - you could have J-1 through J-6 designs, assigning them as needed to particular links in the network.

 

[Vormaerin]

With this thought in mind.... it makes sense to me that the various Empires in charted space would be very keen to master a communications network that allows for the fastest possible communications. I would think they would have established a reliable network of static routes with the fastest ships (most parsecs per jump). In addition they would also have a more dynamic and casual network of data flow where any ship moving from one system to the next is also carrying a data 'package' to be dumped and updated at each system they stop at.

So, the default in the 3I is the X-boat, which is a 1 man J4 ship that follows established routes with waystations at intervals for maintenance and whatnot. They basically jump into a system, transmit the data to another X-boat that jumps out while the original gets the usual maintenance.

The Imperium also has J6 couriers that are used for especially sensitive missions but don't necessarily have the formal routes and organization of the J4 vessels.

Networks need to go where the news needs to go, which is usually high population planets, political capitals, and military bases. So sometimes the waypoints on the X-boat route will be much shorter than J4. If you look at Travellermap.com, you'll see the main X-boat routes marked by green lines. A fast courier that only needs it's message to reach one particular location can, of course, jump optimal distances based on available refueling locations to get the fastest transport.

The 3I uses J4 vessels because that's less technologically demanding than J6 (and also requires less demanding astrogation/engineering tasks from the sole crewman in MgT2e so your mailmen don't have to be the best of the best astrogators).

 

[agentwigggles]

The J6 couriers are consider a national secret for 3i.

 

[rinku]

The J6 couriers are consider a national secret for 3i.

Not exactly. The (I think) Imperiallines J-6 ships are; they're deliberately built to look identical to a regular commerical ship design with lower jump rating, and are run as a covert communications network.

The Naval J-6 fleet couriers seem to be public knowledge, but those don't appear to operate in a special communications network either. My impression for them is that they mostly shuttle between Naval bases and fleets in the field, and occasionally get sent on long distance delivery runs. Even in those cases, you'd think that they would aim to stage through Naval bases if possible, even if that meant the occasional J-4 or J-5.

However, at least in the Spinward Marches, Naval bases appear to be mostly spaced out in 5 to 6 parsec separations. So it all hangs together.

I've not seen anything anywhere that Jump 6 technology as such is classified. But if you want to make that so in YTU, so be it.

 

[mavikfelna]

Something to consider for critical communication in the 3I setting, the Imperium has access to Hop-1 prototype drives and should be using them to build a critical high speed network connecting Capital with the various important sector capitals and sector depots. The ship's aren't cheap, compared to the X-Boats, around 250 MCr each vs the 35 MCr or so of the X-Boat, but for a limited network that is not terribly expensive compared to moving information at almost 4 times it's normal speed and about twice as fast as jump-6 couriers.
What the various nations need are multi-layered communications networks. Your basic information and news travels at Jump-3 or 4 for reasons of economy, while important and time critical information moves at Jump-6 and typically only between high value nodes at premium prices.
Some nations, like the Vargr and Aslan, have no national communications network but rely on megacorps and local governments to handle most of the communications movement with sharing agreements at the clan or local government borders to keep the information moving.
I would think of all the species, the Hivers probably have the most extensive high speed network but also rely on private vessels to move most standard information from the high speed nodes.

 

[Terry Mixon]

Something to consider for critical communication in the 3I setting, the Imperium has access to Hop-1 prototype drives and should be using them to build a critical high speed network connecting Capital with the various important sector capitals and sector depots. The ship's aren't cheap, compared to the X-Boats, around 250 MCr each vs the 35 MCr or so of the X-Boat, but for a limited network that is not terribly expensive compared to moving information at almost 4 times it's normal speed and about twice as fast as jump-6 couriers.
What the various nations need are multi-layered communications networks. Your basic information and news travels at Jump-3 or 4 for reasons of economy, while important and time critical information moves at Jump-6 and typically only between high value nodes at premium prices.
Some nations, like the Vargr and Aslan, have no national communications network but rely on megacorps and local governments to handle most of the communications movement with sharing agreements at the clan or local government borders to keep the information moving.
I would think of all the species, the Hivers probably have the most extensive high speed network but also rely on private vessels to move most standard information from the high speed nodes.

According to Singularity, there are almost ready for prime time Hop 1 prototypes, but they aren’t quite there yet. Soon, but not yet.

 

[rinku]

As well, aren't prototech Hop drives *exactly* 10 parsec jumps? So there would need to be careful placement of bases, or the risk of overshot hops.

I would expect these would be set up eventually, though. But it seems a little premature while the drive itself is still experimental, and Jump 6 is reliable.

 

[Vormaerin]

I'm fairly confident that "prototype" and "mass production deployment" are not intended to go together.

Once we do have TL17 drives in place, Charted Space will be a quite different place. There's a lot of Rifts and other elements that will become irrelevant. For instance, you could hop from Tobia to Zuflucht to New Home to Filantred to cross the great rift.

 

[Terry Mixon]

As well, aren't prototech Hop drives *exactly* 10 parsec jumps? So there would need to be careful placement of bases, or the risk of overshot hops.

I would expect these would be set up eventually, though. But it seems a little premature while the drive itself is still experimental, and Jump 6 is reliable.

The prototypes in Singularity have governors.

 

[Condottiere]

Almost certainly the Imperium has a factor/six courier network.

As to who runs it, most likely the Navy, with the intelligence agencies piggybacking off it.

Going by the Rothschilds, I'd say quite a number of megacorporations operate such networks, with at least partial coverage of the Imperium they have interests in.

 

[rinku]

I would think that deploying them TOO close to enemy lines might also be avoided. These would absolutely not be placed at risk of capture unless for extreme dire need, I would think. However, it should be sufficient to use them to link sectors. Hop 1 is basically a subsector a week; the technology roughly halves the speed of communication, but it's still many months of travel from core to frontier, and you're only speeding up the date on which any reaction fleet can start out, not the speed at which a fleet can get there.

So Regina to Core? Useful. Regina to Deneb? Vital.

 

[Condottiere]

Likely termini at subsector capitals with naval or intelligence headquarters.

Flexible lines of communication with fleet flagships from there.

Or, forward reconnaissance watching for large enemy fleets about to invade.

 

[rinku]

Maybe.

That's what you'd do after it becomes a reliable technology that can be manufactured in quantity. Prototypes would be tested in the field in safe areas UNLESS there was a genuine existential threat that meant they HAD to be used. ANY chance of the Zhos or the Aslan getting their hands on one would be avoided at all costs. So i'd expect forward recce would not be a plan. At least not yet.

On the other hand, the flip side of things might see a campaign of heroic Consular special forces deeply infiltrating the perfidious Imperium and discovering the existence of the project. Clearly there is only one correct course of action! Can the brave commandos manage to capture the special ship and escape with it on a thrilling chase across sectors to safety!?

Or will the forces of chaos and deceit prevail?

 

[swordtart]

You also need to consider the interstitial jumps.

If you are hopping 4 parsecs each time and we consider it a line, then for news to get everywhere at a reasonable rate then from the points 4 parsecs apart you need jump 1 and 2 ships jumping back and forth in order for those middle 3 systems get the news only a week after the nodes do. The third system can be reached by either jumping 2 forward or 2 back.

If you make your main nodes only jump 3 apart then you just need jump 1 ships to backfill.

So in District 268 which has some TI client systems, Mertactor - Collace - Motmos are Jump-3 apart and all are Empire friendly. Tarsus, Judice and Pavabid can be kept only a week behind by jump 1 from Collace and these systems are of Imperial interest. You can serve Talos from Mertactor and Trexalon from Motmos (assuming anyone was bothered as these are somewhat hostile to the empire). The fauther flung systems are of low interest to the TI and also news from the TI will be of less interest to them so being a few weeks out of date will not matter unduly.

A Jump-3 is TL12 so easily supported by any SPA port and there are many Jump-3 military and civilian vessels that can so secondary duty as mail carriers. Subsidised liners can be expected to service mail routes where the x-boat network is not developed. It would not be implausible for some of them to replace the passenger capacity for mail and other cargo (though dedicated mail forwarding suites are probably the preserve of provincial vessels rather than subsidised ships). For jump-3, fuel requirements are less crippling and overall ships don't have to be quite so optimised for mail. Any ship can handle the interstitial mail carriage (and it probably happens as a function or normal tramp services). Competition is also likely to be higher so prices a little cheaper.

 

[Condottiere]

Hub and spoke.

Regional networks.

Feeder lines.