IP Routing, coming to a space platform near you or "Space, the final IP frontier"

Lt Gen Steven Boutelle was the CIO (or G-6 in Army speak) for the US Army for the past few years.  As such, Gen Boutelle led IT modernization and upgrading of the Army's network.  As is often the case with our military, Gen Boutelle who just retired, today started his new gig as VP of the Global Government Solutions Group at Cisco!  Now I know what you are saying: "Whoa, what is this"?  The guy who was in charge of buying all of the network and security gear goes to Cisco right after retirement and will be back selling Cisco to his friends in the government? What is wrong with that picture?  Well before you go to far, you should know that Cisco did not announce the hiring of Gen Boutelle until shortly after the Senate confirmed his successor.  Well, that makes me feel better.  At least they didn't announce his hiring before someone was appointed taking his place, but I wonder when they actually hired him, not when they announced it.  But that and the whole idea of retired government employees selling into the government can be the subject of another blog, another day.

All of the above was reported by the way, in this article on GCN.  It seems from the article that Gen Boutelle is very excited about one of his tasks which is leading Cisco's internet routing in space initiative or IRIS (you have to love military acronyms, but I thought eEye already had that one).  Supposedly by using IP routing on space communications you can get a 7 to 10 times bump in throughput.  That is nothing to sneeze at and could have huge implications beyond just military uses.  Cisco has already used a modified a router on a NASA satellite in 2003 and is expecting to have a router it will put into orbit (didn't know Cisco had orbital launch vehicles) in the 2nd quarter of 2009.  This could open the floodgates to a major shift to IP based communication in the satellite industry.  

Can you picture William Shatner (surprised Cisco has not hired him too) right now saying., "Space, the final IP frontier.  This is the voyage of the self-defending network, going where no router has gone before."