IP over Lasers

#1

Post by xtoilette » Mon, Sep 29, 2025, 4:19 PM UTC

Re: IP over Lasers

#2

Post by tgma » Wed, Oct 01, 2025, 4:45 PM UTC

Aren't regular fiber-optics just mass-deployed IP over lasers? (this message is brought to you by at least one, likely multiple, lasers in prod)

Re: IP over Lasers

#3

Post by advisedwang » Wed, Oct 01, 2025, 4:51 PM UTC

tgma wrote: post #2

Aren't regular fiber-optics just mass-deployed IP over lasers? (this message is brought to you by at least one, likely multiple, lasers in prod)

Yeah, but kinda cool making it from scratch.

Also this uses air as the medium.

Re: IP over Lasers

#4

Post by lifestyleguru » Wed, Oct 01, 2025, 4:54 PM UTC

Now try IP over electricity.

Re: IP over Lasers

#5

Post by a3w » Wed, Oct 01, 2025, 4:57 PM UTC

A typical computer is connected to the local network using either an Ethernet cable or WiFi. This project connects two computers together through lasers.

No mention of carrier pigeon? IPoAC has three RFCs!

Re: IP over Lasers

#6

Post by alberth » Wed, Oct 01, 2025, 5:00 PM UTC

Isn't fiber broadband exactly this?

It's shooting a laser through a fiber optic cable.

Re: IP over Lasers

#7

Post by proxysna » Wed, Oct 01, 2025, 5:00 PM UTC

Really like seeing networks over whatever laser things. Very cool stuff. This thing always comes to mind. http://images.twibright.com/tns/1208.html

Re: IP over Lasers

#8

Post by a3w » Wed, Oct 01, 2025, 5:02 PM UTC

lifestyleguru wrote: post #4

Now try IP over electricity.

Photons vs electrons? Just rotate 90 degrees, seem to be swappable more easily than using neutrons or other particles, like tau/muon/electron neutrinos.

Oh wait, didn't fermilab even use neutrinos in 2012? That seems even harder, practically made for an April fools RFC.

Re: IP over Lasers

#9

Post by jonah-archive » Wed, Oct 01, 2025, 5:05 PM UTC

advisedwang wrote: post #3

tgma wrote: post #2

Aren't regular fiber-optics just mass-deployed IP over lasers? (this message is brought to you by at least one, likely multiple, lasers in prod)

Yeah, but kinda cool making it from scratch. Also this uses air as the medium.

Free-space optical transmission is a thing, though it's environmentally quite challenging. We tested some gear from https://www.koruza.net at the Internet Archive ~10 years ago or so (I've also built some 10G point-to-point links in my garage, though I'd hardly call them reliable). It is pretty cool to see a scratch build rather than using commercial transceivers

Re: IP over Lasers

#10

Post by jasonjayr » Wed, Oct 01, 2025, 5:09 PM UTC

They built a program they called (relay) that sends packets between a tun network device & a uart serial device

https://github.com/mikeakohn/small_projects/blob/main/ip_ove...

I .... wonder if they considered just using PPP/SLIP?