Quick thoughts
A Node would be big.You've got thousands upon thousands of connections going through it. You'd need a big array of transmitters feeding down into some really power hungry computer hardware routing it out. These things have to be big, because they have to serve a wide area of space. You'd also have a large amount of computing power going solely towards maintaining some reasonable lookup system, so you can tell where to route individual data to. These also have to have the largest range, potentially to the nearest stars (Though this can be somewhat directional). Each node has it's own broadcast frequency.
Beneath that, you have your 'towers'. These could be reliably mounted aboard ships or satellites. A ship-based system only needs to handle the data from within that ship and within a certain range around the ship. It only needs range enough to be able to reach the nearest node, (or another tower) which will usually be within 5-15 light minutes. The towers will also be able to point directly at the node, since the main node positions are on reasonably fixed structures, so won't need as much power to broadcast back to the node, as the node does to broadcast to them. Each 'tower' will transmit on a different frequency, such that no towers connected to the one node are broadcasting on the same frequency. Some of these may move about between nodes occasionally, and may be required to shift their broadcast frequency. As an example SS Ciara's system has a receive/broadcast range back to a main node of about 10 light minutes, and would be considered average. It can work from the ground, and is normally used to provide interwave coverage for her crew, and for her two boats and anyone else within a few light seconds.
At the bottom end, you've your interwave receiver dongle, which is solely capable of connecting to 'tower'/nodes withing a 20-30k KM. It handshakes with the nearest 'tower' which tells the entire network where it is. It can handle it's own data, and not much elses. And Example would be Jet Jaguar's onboard system.... which doesn't even connect to geostationary satellites from Earth orbit. They transmit and receive on the frequency of the 'tower' they connect to, and can change this frequency as they move about.
Edit: Bah, double Ninja'd.
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--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?
A Node would be big.You've got thousands upon thousands of connections going through it. You'd need a big array of transmitters feeding down into some really power hungry computer hardware routing it out. These things have to be big, because they have to serve a wide area of space. You'd also have a large amount of computing power going solely towards maintaining some reasonable lookup system, so you can tell where to route individual data to. These also have to have the largest range, potentially to the nearest stars (Though this can be somewhat directional). Each node has it's own broadcast frequency.
Beneath that, you have your 'towers'. These could be reliably mounted aboard ships or satellites. A ship-based system only needs to handle the data from within that ship and within a certain range around the ship. It only needs range enough to be able to reach the nearest node, (or another tower) which will usually be within 5-15 light minutes. The towers will also be able to point directly at the node, since the main node positions are on reasonably fixed structures, so won't need as much power to broadcast back to the node, as the node does to broadcast to them. Each 'tower' will transmit on a different frequency, such that no towers connected to the one node are broadcasting on the same frequency. Some of these may move about between nodes occasionally, and may be required to shift their broadcast frequency. As an example SS Ciara's system has a receive/broadcast range back to a main node of about 10 light minutes, and would be considered average. It can work from the ground, and is normally used to provide interwave coverage for her crew, and for her two boats and anyone else within a few light seconds.
At the bottom end, you've your interwave receiver dongle, which is solely capable of connecting to 'tower'/nodes withing a 20-30k KM. It handshakes with the nearest 'tower' which tells the entire network where it is. It can handle it's own data, and not much elses. And Example would be Jet Jaguar's onboard system.... which doesn't even connect to geostationary satellites from Earth orbit. They transmit and receive on the frequency of the 'tower' they connect to, and can change this frequency as they move about.
Edit: Bah, double Ninja'd.
________________________________
--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?