Tether Delay-Tolerant Relay Protocol

Messages between Kepler Yards and the outer system can take hours and links come and go as planets move. Tether is a delay-tolerant networking stack that stores and forwards data bundles until a path opens, then routes them along the best available chain of relays.

It runs aboard the Lantern constellation, the Phobos Anchor relay and every Polaris Relay Tender. Ships carry Tether too, so a Polaris crew can act as a data mule, carrying traffic between relays as they fly servicing routes.

Released under BSD-3-Clause, Tether has become a de facto standard: partner fleets and research stations adopted it so their messages could ride Halcyon's relays.

The link simulator in the repository is the best place to start contributing, whether on routing algorithms or new transport adapters. Current products include delay-tolerant networking stack, bundle routing engine and link simulator. Everything is distributed under the BSD-3-Clause licence, with source and documentation at https://git.halcyon.example/tether, and the open data team answers questions on the community forum within two working days. Partners who build commercial services on top of it are asked only to credit Halcyon Stellar Works and to report errors they find, so that every user benefits from the fix.