space opera communications systems

Something has been bothering me for some time with space opera communications systems, especially those that seem instantaneous across interstellar space. It’s just not possible! However, it wouldn’t make the stories as interesting without some way to instantly communicate across those vast distances.

I used my knowledge of networking and communications system to come up with a system for the communications network in my space opera Starfire Angels: Forgotten Worlds but didn’t feel the need to explain it through most of the series, except to mention a network of communications beacons across the galaxy, including space stations, a system valuable to every space-faring race. To not have it would mean signals that take lifetimes to cross the vastness of space. These beacons act like network switches and more. However, early on, I also made it known that hyperspace could cause interference in such communications. I knew there was something more to this, but I could never explain it and just let it be as long as readers could accept that it just works that way in my universe without further details.

The communications beacon network provides similar locating to how our cellphone tower pinging works for determining the area where a cell phone is generally located. Primarily, it works similar to how data packets flow in the real world, by changing the headers and trailers of data packets in the network of beacons and the tables updated through the network to identify which beacons are closest to each end of a data stream. In this way, a ship can be generally known where it’s located, and I used this to pull some comms tricks with my characters early in the series and a little in later places, doing things like locking out the locations in the data headers to hide the beacons through which the data traveled or using ciphers that act like our VPNs act.

I don’t go into details about the system unless there is a small piece to explain for these fun little ways of using it in the plot of a given story. It’s just a part of the worldbuilding/setting, a tool used by the characters, but it’s the little details that make everything feel more plausible.

As I’m writing the first draft of Book 24, I’ve finally been inspired and know the piece that was missing. I’ve added a brief explanation of how the system provides nearly instantaneous communications even across the galaxy and why they can have some interference when a ship is in hyperspace while accessing this network. Readers may or may not care, but it’s always bothered me that I didn’t have that explanation. It turns out the beacons access something similar to hyperspace and are massive for the equipment to do this across the vast expanse of space.

I won’t go into the specific technology, but I will say that my explanation for instant communications will make sense in the setting.

I know we like to just accept instant communications, since that’s what we get on our little third rock from the sun, but it really would not happen that way in space. If you understood the intricacies of high-speed broadband communications, you’d realize that this little handwavium of science fiction is a detail often overlooked for convenience. I wanted to finally close that gap with a tool that I think adds a new layer to the setting, something designed specifically for my world based on real-world telecommunications networks and which I could exploit in the series. I could never have conceived of this if not for working in this industry.

And in the second-to-last book of the series, that final piece of this communications network will be revealed.

Thanks for reading!