Datagate

The information-transfer counterpart to a transit stargate, datagates use microscopic wormholes to enable fastnet connections with little lightspeed-lag.

Design

Similar to their larger cousins, the central component of a datagate is a Casimir ram supporting a miniature wormhole too small for material objects to traverse, but large enough to pass electromagnetic radiation such as lasers. Data is sent in this manner between pairs of gates, where it is then routed onto conventional network hardware. A datagate wormhole typically masses several grams, to provide a buffer for changes induced by the mass-energy of transiting photons. This much lower mass, versus that of a ship-grade stargate, enables datagates to be placed on planetary surfaces or near-orbits without too much danger.
A typical datagate resembles a sphere several meters across, consisting of laser transcievers surrounding the wormhole and its support equipment at the center. To minimize time-lag for transmissions which must cross multiple gates, they are typically clustered together in network facilities which are unmanned in normal operation and typically located underground or in wilderness areas in case of catastrophic wormhole failure. These close distances make temporal synchronization a very delicate affair, and for this reason there will usually be a cyclotron nearby in which datagate wormholes can be spun to reduce temporal drift. This is usually done in periods of low traffic, with data from the offline link sent through another route, if one is available.

Parent Technologies

• Wormholes