EVE Fiction

Please note that this is a purely speculative piece, from an OOC perspective, and thus may not be the method by which drones operate in the Fiction. As ever I defer to CCP in terms of canonical techno-babble, and merely submit my work as a curiosity born of enthusiasm and interest in this particular area.

Drones are a common feature in capsuleer life, providing a great many services including combat, logistics and electronic warfare capabilities. Ignoring the service automatons that provide vital maintenance or augment armour and structure repair systems, external communication is vital for the command and control of all drones under a given capsuleer’s authority. The primary issue with communication is resource limitation, bandwidth in this case. But the root of why this is a limiting factor lies in the history of the technology, the forces that have shaped the current state of affairs.

Centralisation is a key facet of modern drone control. A ship provides a central node in a drone network, with the drones themselves forming end points. Though some methods allow for co-operation between drones in flight, all communication is routed back through the central point. Considering that the drones are frequently closer to one another than they are their controller, it would seem logical that they’d save resources talking to one another? Only if one does not account for the limitations of available communication technologies.

Modern drones use a limited form of fluid router technology, with a pair-entangled quantum wafer forming the physical layer of a drone network. Entangled communications only allows communication between the two entangled pairs; traditional (optical or electronic) routing between the discreet hardware elements of a fluid router is required to allow one link to translate into information communicated over another. Therefore, centralisation is required – the full router configuration is too bulky and power intensive to be placed on a drone. But why use such an unwieldy and power hunger communication method to start with?

Electromagnetic spectrum communication was and is a stock-favourite for short range communication. Assuming proximity to the source of a transmission, EM spectrum communication remains one of the most efficient and mature technologies available. This is an issue in and of itself, proliferation. Almost anyone can construct a transceiver using this technology, and it is just a matter of power and frequency before the right band is found and the communication channel between drones is isolated and attacked.

Cyber-warfare has preceded the clash of arms on the ground and in space for several centuries. This clash of digital firepower has resulted in a technical stalemate: modern systems use such advanced cryptographic methods and curt communication that breaking a given network requires the expenditure of significant computational resources and time. In modern warfare, this initial cyber-attack is launched for one reason alone – to force the enemy out of the electro-magnetic spectrum and deprive them of an efficient communication mechanism. As online attacks against the cryptographic keys used by a given network are likely to fail, denial of service is the order of the day, both sides flooding the EM spectrum with noise to prevent the use of that medium with any degree of efficacy.

Thus, we return to the centralised method: fluid routers have effectively zero medium between the source and destination. This means that communications cannot be observed or jammed, and that they are secure by their very nature, removing the need for computationally complex cryptography or packet-size inflating security frameworks. The downside of this is that the technological requirements to operate drones effectively are significant, to the point that only ships with specialised hardware, crew training and interface systems can maximise the effectiveness of their drone payload. The rest must rely on the autonomous systems on each drone to work as well they can with a minimum of guidance beyond target locks and orders to act.

Concerning vessels optimised for drone communication, we encounter three main schools of thought: the Federal School, Imperial School and Guristas Method.

The Federal School focuses on collaboration and the distribution of information across drone networks. Vessels such as the Vexor are fitted with enhanced communication and task allocation racks. These racks are dedicated to one purpose – share information as required, between the ship itself and all drones, allowing the optimal decision for a given drone to be made based on a sum of all available knowledge instead of the limited capabilities of individual drones. This is augmented with artificially intelligent ghost rider remote pilot systems, which draw on a wealth of manned and remote piloting expert systems to provide cutting edge flight and targeting solutions. The Navy Issue Vexor and Ishtar take this system and add additional hardware to provide far more bandwidth whilst retaining the efficacy and level of cooperation seen in the stock system.

The Imperial School is symptomatic of Imperial culture: centralisation is key. The sharing of information is focused on the central element of the network, the ship. Instead of routing communication out to the drones allowing a remote piloting element to drone control, Imperial warships fitted for enhanced drone control make use of a local supercomputer to draw in all situational data and make decisions. This allows the system to treat all drones as dumb terminals and removes the need for artificially intelligent sub-systems: the core intelligence of the ship in question treats drone control as its own sub-process.

Continued in the next post