William D. Ivancic

Glenn Research Center, Cleveland, Ohio

Applying Web-Based Tools for Research,

Engineering, and Operations

NASA/TM—2011-216991

March 2011

IEEEAC—1231
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William D. Ivancic

Glenn Research Center, Cleveland, Ohio

Applying Web-Based Tools for Research,

Engineering, and Operations

NASA/TM—2011-216991

March 2011

IEEEAC—1231

National Aeronautics and

Space Administration

Glenn Research Center

Cleveland, Ohio 44135

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NASA/TM—2011-216991 1 

Applying Web-Based Tools for Research, Engineering, and Operations 

William D. Ivancic 

National Aeronautics and Space Administration 

Glenn Research Center 

Cleveland, Ohio 44135 

Abstract 

Personnel in the NASA Glenn Research Center Network 

and Architectures branch have performed a variety of research 

related to space-based sensor webs, network centric 

operations, security and delay tolerant networking (DTN). 

Quality documentation and communications, real-time 

monitoring and information dissemination are critical in order 

to perform quality research while maintaining low cost and 

utilizing multiple remote systems. This has been accomplished 

using a variety of Internet technologies often operating 

simultaneously. This paper describes important features of 

various technologies and provides a number of real-world 

examples of how combining Internet technologies can enable 

a virtual team to act efficiently as one unit to perform 

advanced research in operational systems. Finally, real and 

potential abuses of power and manipulation of information 

and information access is addressed. 

Introduction 

Much of the research performed by personnel in NASA 

Glenn Research Center’s Network and Architectures branch is 

directed towards communication protocol development, 

network centric operations, and secure mobile networking. In 

order to address real-world operational deployment implications 

—particularly with regard to security—much of the research 

has been performed in operational systems owned and operated 

by various entities and connected via the Internet. Almost all 

efforts are via remote operations with multiple parties located 

throughout the world. Timely communication and common 

situational awareness are critical for mission success. This has 

been accomplished using a variety of Internet technologies. 

This paper describes many of the Web-based tools available 

that provide efficient communication, collaboration, and 

information sharing and dissemination. A number of real-world 

examples are given showing how combining Internet 

technologies can enable a virtual team to act efficiently as one 

unit to perform advanced research in operational systems. 

Finally, real and potential abuses of power and manipulation of 

information and information access are addressed. 

To date, we have not utilized social media networks such as 

blogging services, Facebook, MySpace or Twitter as other 

technologies appear to better serve a team environment and 

provide better security control. Some of the technologies that 

will be covered include: email and mail list servers, Web 

servers, Wikis, teleconferencing, audio streaming, instant 

messaging, Web-based meetings, version control systems, issue 

trackers and publish/subscribe Web telemetry servers. 

Mobility: How People Work Today 

Before we examine the various Web-based technologies and 

how they have been applied to improve our communications and 

work efficiencies, it is worth reviewing how people work today. 

 People work globally. 

 The world runs 24 hr a day. 

 People work across time zones—often, global time zones. 

 People are mobile (locally and globally). 

 Wireless is the norm. 

 Always on connectivity (at least if one does not 

intentionally disconnect) is the norm. 

 It is not uncommon to be on a teleconference while 

sitting in an airport or taxi or car or train. 

 People operate in a virtual environment and multitask. 

 One does not have to be physically present to participate. 

 Technology allows one to time-shift information. 

 Machines do not care what time it is, people do. 

This is Reality 

The author resides in the Eastern United State time zone. 

He participated in an early morning teleconference with 

colleagues in Europe. The author was also required to 

participate in a late-day (Pacific Time Zone) teleconference In 

order to fulfill both obligations and maintain a reasonable 

family life, the second teleconference was handle from home 

(telecommuting). The wireless phone was muted. The laptop 

was on the kitchen table with the charts up. The grill was 

ready for cooking. The table was being set and food was being 

prepared. Multitasking! 

The author received an email from a working group 

chairman asking to present at a meeting in Prague, Czech 

Republic. The author was in Cleveland, Ohio. The meeting 

was from 17:40 to 19:50 Prague time (11:40 a.m. in 

Cleveland). The email came the night before the meeting. The 

presentation was placed on a Web server. A colleague at the 

Prague meeting volunteered to give the presentation. The 

colleague presented while the author listened via a live MP3 

audio feed accessed from his laptop, which was connected to 

the Internet via a broadband card. The author was at the auto 

repair center at this time. The questions were heard, and 

responded to via instant messaging (Jabber) in a chat room set 

up for this meeting. The chairman monitored the instant 

message chat room and relayed responses to the meeting 

attendees. It worked. Technologies utilized included email, 

file and Web servers, MP3 audio streaming, instant messaging 

(chat rooms) and broadband mobile internet access. 
NASA/TM—2011-216991 2 

Web Applications and Technologies 

Voice 

When considering human interaction, there is no substitute 

for voice communication. It provides human contact that is 

essential to building trust. One can also hear emotions and 

voice inflections that provide additional information not 

conveyed in text. So what makes the Internet so special with 

regards to voice? The answer is Voice over Internet Protocol 

(VoIP). VoIP has dropped the price of international voice 

communications to a few cents per minute or less. In addition, 

teleconferencing is available to all. Finally, most, if not all 

landline telephone communication is converted to Digital and 

VoIP, so even land line costs have dropped dramatically 

making it easier to communicate internationally—from home. 

Being able to phone from home is important because that 

extends the contact time for international communication—

8:00 a.m. in Tokyo, it is 7:00 p.m. on the east coast of the 

United States. 

Teleconferencing 

Teleconferencing is a mature technology. It is simple and 

works well. With today’s VoIP technologies, someone from 

half way around the Globe can participate for a few cents per 

minute. If information is distributed early or placed on a file 

server, teleconferencing can be as effective or perhaps more 

effective than Web-based meetings. If documents are 

distributed early, participants can prepare and can participate 

while on a low bandwidth mobile phone sitting in a taxi or 

book store or coffee shop—although the latter two may have 

Web access and low bandwidth phones are becoming 

dinosaurs. 

Mobile Phones 

Mobile phones are not just phones anymore. Mobile phones 

are now network appliances with multitasking capabilities. 

Bandwidths for 4G are in the Mbps range. With such 

bandwidth, one can talk while sending video, downloading 

files, reading email, and browsing the Web. Some phone can 

even act as Wi-Fi hotspots. 

Email and Mail List Servers 

For all practical purposes, everyone has email. Many have 

multiple accounts. In addition, one can send large files to large 

groups via email (not that this is the best way to distribute such 

information). 

Many people also subscribe to mail lists. Many companies 

and government agencies run mail list servers and new mail lists 

can be setup by their employees. There are also free mail list 

servers available. Some of the advantages of mail list servers 

include the ability to archive and review archives of discussions, 

control of the group, an ability to see who is included in the 

group, and bulk delivery. Do not underestimate the usefulness 

of archiving discussions. Generally, these archives can be 

searched and sorted by date, topic, thread, or author. 

Web Servers 

Web servers are simple and quick to set up and use. Most 

people with high-speed Internet access probably are provided 

with some space to create a personal limited capacity Web 

site. All major companies have internal and external Web 

servers. There are also numerous software packages available 

to create sophisticated Web sites or very simple Web sites 

without having to learn the hypertext language. 

Web servers provide a publish/subscribe environment. The 

main issue is access. Who is permitted to publish and who is 

permitted to subscribe. Information, documents, papers, 

presentations, video and just about anything one can think of 

can be made available on a Web page. All a subscriber needs 

to do to obtain that information is point to the site with a 

browser and click. Social media sites such as Facebook, 

Twitter, Flicker, and YouTube are just specialized applications 

running on Web servers and certainly could be considered 

personal Web sites. 

Wikis are Web servers that provide a simple way to edit Web 

pages without having to be an expert. Wikis are an excellent 

way to distribute information quickly. They are a publish and 

subscribe architecture. Wikis are often set up to allow multiple 

editors or even full pubic editing. Access can be limited in a 

number of ways included access lists or physical access. In 

addition, publication privileges are readily controlled. 

Audiocasting and Podcasting 

Audiocast is digital audio content generally available on the 

Internet. Audiocast can be in the form of real-time streaming 

or via archived files. These archived files are available via the 

Web and often termed podcast although podcast could include 

video as well. 

The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) is a large open 

international community of network designers, operators, 

vendors, and researchers concerned with the evolution of the 

Internet architecture and the smooth operation of the Internet. 

It is open to any interested individual. For many years, the 

IETF has audiocast their meetings over the Internet enabling 

anyone to remotely participate in the meetings. This helps 

with travel issues (i.e., money, time, foreign entry) as the IETF 

meets three times a year and moves those meetings around the 

globe. Everybody at the meetings must use the microphone so 

that remote listeners can hear as the audio is picked up from 

the microphones. A byproduct of the audiocast is that these 

audio streams are archived. Thus, anyone can listen to an 

archived meeting at any time. Since the presentations are also 

archived, one can view the charts and listen to the stored audio 

presentation at a convenient time. 
NASA/TM—2011-216991 3 

Video 

With today’s technology, it is very easy for individuals to 

make videos. One can even capture the information as it 

occurs on a computer screen and turn that into a video. These 

videos can then be place on Web servers. Videos are created 

for entertainment, advertising, promotion, publication, 

tutorials, or documentation. YouTube is one of the betterknown Web sites for an individual to upload videos for mass 

distribution. One can also upload video to social media sites 

such as Facebook thereby limiting distribution to only those 

you have allowed access. 

Instant Messaging 

Originally, instant messaging was strictly text based. 

Today, instant messaging can include audio chat and video 

conferencing as well as file sharing, and archiving services. 

Most instant messaging now has some form of security 

features. 

Instant messaging can be between two users, but is also 

very useful as a real-time group discussion tool. This is 

accomplished using chat rooms. As with email list servers, the 

archiving services provided by some instant messaging tools 

can be quite valuable. 

Virtual Network Computing 

Virtual Network Computing (VNC) is a graphical desktop 

sharing system to remotely control another computer over a 

network connection. VNC was originally developed at the 

Olivetti Research Laboratory in Cambridge, United Kingdom 

and was available as open source. Numerous remote 

monitoring and control software packages are now available. 

Some are free and others are for purchase. Such software 

enables one to see the desktop of a remote machine and 

control it with your local mouse and keyboard, just like you 

would do it sitting in the front of that computer. This generally 

requires reasonable bandwidth and can be rather slow over 

low bandwidth or long delay links. 

VNC software is invaluable for remote access to control 

systems as well as for training. Using VNC technology, an 

expert no longer is required to be co-located with the control 

system. Furthermore, untrained users can learn from a remote 

expert by “virtually” looking over the expert’s shoulder during 

live operations without being co-located with that expert. 

Web-Based Meeting Services 

Web-based meetings are a technology that often combines 

application and/or desktop sharing VNC with teleconferencing and instant messaging. Some software tools 

allow users to only share display of desktops while others 

allow remote users to take over control of the remote system. 

Some Web-based meeting tools also include voice and video 

as well as desktop sharing. The ability to remotely view and 

control a machine implies that Web-based meeting services 

can be used for other than just meetings. It is important to note 

that Web-based meeting services require a reasonable amount 

of bandwidth. Therefore, it is often more effective to simply 

distribute meeting materials prior to the meeting and hold a 

teleconference. 

Version Control Servers 

Version control software is readily available including 

commercial packages as well as many free open source 

packages. Version control software is most often used by 

computer programmers to collaborate, maintain and document 

software changes. However, such version control servers can 

be readily adapted to non-software documentation. With 

version control, one can quickly revert back to older versions 

of documents. Generally when a revised document is uploaded 

to the version control server, some text or notation is added to 

the metadata indicating what changes were made thereby 

enabling remotely diverse collaborators to understand what 

revisions and updates were made to the documents. This is 

particularly true for software as one can display the 

differences between two files, or each corresponding file in 

two different directories. 

Web Collaboration Software and Servers 

Web collaboration software provides a uniform integrated 

portal that combines many of the tools previously discussed 

including video or voice conferencing, email and instant 

messaging and white boarding. These Web-based 

collaboration software tools enable the sharing of information 

by providing an intranet-based environment for virtual 

teamwork (Ref. 1). They also provide a fairly high degree of 

security management. Few Web collaboration software 

packages are free and many tend to combine a particular 

company’s products whereas all of the previous tools 

discussed can be obtained free of charge and many are open 

source software. 

Case Studies 

Internet Protocols in Space: Testing and 

Troubleshooting 

During the spring of 2004, a demonstration of the Office of 

Secretary of Defense (OSD) space-based network centric 

operations concepts and major elements of the National 

Reconnaissance Office (NRO) Transformal Communication 

Architecture (TCA) was successful completed using technology 

based around the Internet Protocols (Ref. 2). A key element of 

this demonstration was the ability to securely use networks and 

infrastructure owned and/or controlled by various parties. The 

demonstration involved the United States Army, Air Force and 
NASA/TM—2011-216991 4 

NASA as well as US and foreign commercial companies. Two 

transmit and receive and one receive-only ground stations 

located in Guldford, England, North Pole Alaska and Colorado 

Spring Colorado, respectively were used. 

The remote user (warfighter) operations were conducted out 

of Vanderberg Air Force Base, California. In order to 

coordinate during troubleshooting and testing we utilized a 

number of Internet communication technologies as well as 

teleconferencing. 

Instant messaging was extremely useful as it provided an 

out-of-band communication channel during teleconferences 

and live testing. This reduced chatter on the teleconference as 

well as in the control rooms where much information is being

communicated over intercom systems. The first information

that was conveyed was that someone had logged into the

system and therefore was there and working. The other 

information conveyed was more in the line of today’s text 

messaging. (e.g., “Receiving RF”, “Modem Locked,” 

“Receiving Telemetry”). 

Email list servers were established for various groups to 

broadcast status and critical information to the appropriate teams. 

General Dynamics, as part of their work with Army Space 

and Missile Defense Command Battle Lab, developed a 

Virtual Mission Operations Center (VMOC). One of the 

features of this secure portal was the ability to receive satellite 

telemetry from three participating ground stations. In this 

demonstration the SSTL United Kingdom Disaster Monitoring 

Satellite (UK-DMC) was used. The UK-DMC had a Cisco 

Router onboard. The telemetry from this satellite could be 

displayed in real-time by anyone with access privileges to the 

VMOC. Since this was a Web-based service with portions 

constructed in a publish/subscribe architecture, all participants 

could have access to the telemetry. Universal Space Network 

(USN) and Integrated Applications Incorporated used the realtime telemetry to debug their ground stations. For example: 

USN was able to validate, in real-time, that they were tracking 

the satellite and transmitting at proper frequency and power 

levels by monitoring the receiver power. In this instance, 

receiver power at the satellite was to be between 

approximately –100 to –90 dBm. There are two receivers 

corresponding to two frequencies as illustrated in Figure 1.

USN was transmitting on a frequency that is received by the 

top entry. 

Occasionally, a user did not have access to the VMOC as 

there was either a one-time need or it was impossible to 

instantaneously provide access privileges. In those cases, an 

impromptu WebEx meeting was setup and the desktop display

of a machine that did have access to the VMOC was pushed 

out to those individuals or groups that subscribed to the 

WebEx meeting. In such instances, the telemetry screen in 

Figure 1 was projected out via WebEx from a user that had 

access to the VMOC. 

Figure 1.—Real-time telemetry. 
NASA/TM—2011-216991 5 

Delay Tolerant Networking (DTN) 

Disconnectathon 

On July 29 and 30 of 2009, the Internet Research Task 

Force (IRTF) Delay Tolerant Networking Research Group 

(DTNRG) held a DTN interoperability event at the Internet 

Engineering Task Force (IETF) meetings in Stockholm, 

Sweden. The event was named Disconnectathon. Participating 

sites (DTN network nodes) were spread throughout the United 

States and Europe with nodes at Ohio University in Athens, 

Ohio, a node in Cleveland, Ohio, nodes at Trinity College in 

Dublin, Ireland, and a variety of nodes at the IETF meeting. 

Figure 2 shows a hand draw diagram of some portions of the 

interoperability network that were constructed on site. This 

diagram was uploaded to a Web server and a hyperlink place 

on the DTNRG wiki to provide all participants with real-time 

situational awareness. 

In the past, to perform interoperability tests, a large switch 

or hub was setup in a room and people connected their 

machines to that hub. Everything and everyone had to be colocated. For this interoperability experiment, machines could 

come and go from the network as disconnection is assumed a 

normal operating mode for DTNs. The IETF meeting wireless 

network infrastructure provided connectivity for the local 

machines. One did not have to be in any specific room or tied 

to a wired system. Experiments were run while researchers 

were participating in meetings in various rooms throughout 

the conference center. There was no need for everybody to be 

co-located. This was accomplished by having Ohio University 

setup a dynamic domain name server (DNS) and everybody 

registered their addresses with that DNS. Ohio University then 

periodically updated and published the DNS entries on a Web 

server to aid in configuration of static routes—as static routing 

was all that was used during these interoperability experiments 

(Table 1). Finally, any useful information to aid in the 

interoperability tests was published on the DTNRG wiki at the 

Disconnectathon site including all configurations and contact 

information (Ref. 3). 

In order to communicate over time zones, in various remote 

locations and various rooms a teleconference number and a 

special email list server and collaboration site were 

established. Since DTNRG already had an instant messaging 

broadcast textual communications to the participants. It turned 

out that the chat room was the most useful way to 

communicate. Everyone in the chat room had the same 

situational awareness. Furthermore, the jabber chat room 

provided an archiving feature and allowed users to review 

older conversations that they may not have seen while finally, 

participants often were in locations where voice 

communications would have disturbed others. 

Figure 2.—Disconnectathon network diagram. 

TABLE 1.—REDUCED SET OF ENTRIES FROM 

DISCONNECTATHON DYNAMIC DNS 

Use of Wikis and Web servers proved useful—particularly 

to monitor remote operations for trouble shooting purposes. 

One could not assume a human was available to help due to 

the discrepancy in time zones and continuous interoperability 

testing. One example of use of Web servers is shown in 

Table 2. Ohio University periodically published the DTN log 

files from its various DTN nodes. The particular snapshot of 

the log file shown in Table 2 is of the Ohio University DTN 

gateway machine, QUEST (Fig. 2). One could remotely view 

these log files and determine if DTN bundles were being 

received properly and, if they died at the Ohio University site. 

Many of the techniques used during this Disconnectathon have 

been incorporated into remote monitoring of nodes on the 

DTNbone (Refs. 4 to 6). 

dtnbone.ocp.ohiou.edu name server lin5.its.ohiou.edu. < ---server URL

bbn-dtnbone-m04.dtnbone.ocp.ohiou.edu has address 130.129.20.132 

daedalus.dtnbone.ocp.ohiou.edu has address 75.180.14.85 

dax.dtnbone.ocp.ohiou.edu has address 132.235.232.105 

dtngateway-2-200.dtnbone.ocp.ohiou.edu has address 130.129.51.245 

dtnmule-2-10.dtnbone.ocp.ohiou.edu has address 130.129.52.243 

dtnmule-2-31.dtnbone.ocp.ohiou.edu has address 130.129.53.239 

haruman.dtnbone.ocp.ohiou.edu has address 132.235.3.41 

jishac-laptop.dtnbone.ocp.ohiou.edu has address 130.129.37.254 

laren.dtnbone.ocp.ohiou.edu has address 132.235.67.81 

miles.dtnbone.ocp.ohiou.edu has address 132.235.67.20 

sphere.dtnbone.ocp.ohiou.edu has address 130.129.23.175 

teemu.dtnbone.ocp.ohiou.edu has address 130.129.21.129 

dtnbone.commet.tkk.fi (Camera Application) <---- Reg in other DNS 
NASA/TM—2011-216991 6 

Multiterminal Delay Tolerant Networking 

Experiments 

The NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC) has performed a 

number of DTN multiterminal experiments using SSTL and 

USN infrastructure (Ref. 7). Personnel from Japan’s National 

Institute of Information and Communication (NICT) and the 

Japan Manned Space Systems Corporation (JAMSS) 

expressed interest in performing joint DTN experiments using 

NICT’s ground station in Koganei, Japan. Funding was 

available for only two satellite pass attempts. There was little 

margin for error or time or resources for training. Therefore, 

NICT and JAMSS agreed to allow NASA GRC personnel to 

have remote access to their systems to run the commands. In 

order to allow NICT and JAMSS personnel to view the 

commands being entered during satellite passes, Virtual 

Network Computing (VNC) software was installed on the 

local controller machine at the Koganei site and on a remote 

access machine at GRC. This enabled GRC personnel to 

remotely control the experiment while NICT and JAMSS 

personnel viewed locally. GRC personnel could have used 

remote access via secure shell1

 and X-windows2 to run the 

tests, but local personal in Japan would not have been able to 

view operations. VNC allowed for full transparency as 

personnel in Japan could view in real-time the commands 

being issued by GRC personnel. 

1

Secure Shell (SSH) is a network protocol that allows data to be 

exchanged using a secure channel between two networked devices. 2

X Window System is a computer software system and network 

protocol that provides a graphical user interface for networked 

computers.

NASA Real Time Mission Monitor (RTMM) 

The NASA Real Time Mission Monitor (RTMM) is a Webbased situational awareness tool. It uses a service-oriented 

architecture based on community standards and protocols. 

Utilizing RTMM, multiple users remotely located are able to 

obtain the same situational awareness. In addition, each user 

can customize the information presented. The RTMM 

continues to evolve and currently integrates satellite, airborne 

and surface data sets; weather information; model and forecast 

outputs; and vehicle state data for field experiment 

management (Ref. 8). 

One recent program that has utilized the RTMM was the 

Genesis and Rapid Intensification Processes (GRIP) 

experiment. The goal of GRIP was to better understand how 

tropical storms form and develop into major hurricanes. One 

of the experiments took place on September 16 and 17, 2010 

when three NASA aircraft jointly collected data on what 

became hurricane Karl. 

Figure 3 shows aircraft flight tracks for the DC-8 and 

WB57. Other information that is available from the RTMM 

includes, but is not limited to: aircraft waypoints, lightening 

strikes, and near-real-time research data output. 

TABLE 2.—SNAPSHOT OF DTN LOG FILE FOR OHIO UNIVERSITY “QUEST” DTN NODE 
NASA/TM—2011-216991 7 

Figure 3.—RTMM aircraft tracks display. 

Issues 

Information Control 

Once information is on the open Internet, there is very little 

one can do to remove that information. 

Web collaboration software written for business enterprises 

provides security features that help control information flow 

(i.e., information access control, publishing control, etc...). 

These restricted social media tools generally reside behind the 

corporate firewalls and usually limit access to only employees 

physically inside the network or with restricted remote access 

privileges. 

Web 2.0 technologies are commonly associated with Web 

applications that facilitate interactive information sharing, and 

user-centered design. Web 2.0 sites provide users the free 

choice to rapidly interact or collaborate with each other. 

What is corporate policy when considering use of Web 2.0 

technologies for business applications? Is use of Web 2.0 

technology on the open Internet allowed? What happens if one 

wishes to utilize Web 2.0 technology for international 

collaboration or collaborations across organization? Note, 

individuals do not always follow policy and may take 

whatever steps are necessary to get the job done. 

Social Media sites outside the corporate firewall are 

accessible via the Web using standard Web browsers. Most 

corporations’ firewalls are inbound centric. Firewalls block 

inbound traffic originating from outside sources. Very few

corporate networks restrict outbound access to the Web—

although they may restrict access to particular sites. Therefore, 

the ability to control information is quite problematic and 

getting more difficult every day. Employee training is vital to 

ensuring sensitive information does not reach unintended 

audiences. 

Abuses 

Just as one can abuse Web 2.0 by distributing information 

that should be restricted, one can also use tools that restrict 

access to inhibit communication and collaboration for an 

individual’s or entity’s own purposes. For example, one may 

wish to give the impression of open discussion while actually 

controlling the information flow. One might control access to 

or quietly removed individuals from a mail list server if one 

determines that dissenting opinions are not in the best interest 

of the list or Wiki controller. To avoid such instances, some 

open organizations such as the Internet Engineering Task 

Force have very clear procedures for restricting access 

(Refs. 9 and 10). Other organizations do not and have such 

policies in place resulting in individual’s implemented 

practices such as silently removing dissenting opinions. 

Conclusions 

Internet technologies help enable a free flow of information 

and collaboration. Much of this technology is free, openly 

available. Furthermore, it takes very little time to become a 

reasonably proficient user. 

Open collaboration tools have been critical to enabling 

mission success as validated by the case studies presented. 

Such tools enable free flow of communication, real-time 

communication, improved situational awareness, and remote 

operations and testing. Indirect benefits include: reduced 

travel costs, information and communication archiving, and 

better utilization of remote experts for operations and training. 

Enterprise level collaborative software enables corporations 

and institutions to place security and controls on the 

information within these systems. However, that does not 

ensure that individuals or groups will only collaborate within 

such closed systems. 

Employee training is vital to ensuring sensitive information 

does not reach unintended audiences or leave the corporate 

network. Once it does, there is very little one can do to get it back. 
NASA/TM—2011-216991 8 

References 

1. http://www.capterra.com/web-collaboration-software 

Accessed March 15, 2011. 

2. William Ivancic, Phil Paulsen, Dave Stewart, Dan Shell, 

Lloyd Wood, Chris Jackson, Dave Hodgson, James 

Northam, Neville Bean, Eric Miller, Mark Graves and 

Lance Kurisaki: “Secure, Network-Centric Operations of a 

Space-Based Asset: Cisco Router in Low-Earth Orbit 

(CLEO) and Virtual Mission Operations Center (VMOC),” 

NASA/TM—2005-213556, May, 2005 (Final Report) file 

size 3.1 Mbytes. 

http://roland.grc.nasa.gov/~ivancic/papers_presentations/2

005/cleovmoc.pdf. 

3. http://www.dtnrg.org/wiki/DtnBone/Disconnectathon, 

October 2010. 

4. http://www.dtnrg.org/wiki/DtnBone, October 2010. 

5. http://dtn-vhost-1.no-ip.org/ October 2010. 

6. http://ionnetman.dtnbone.ocp.ohiou.edu/monitor3/ 

October 2010. 

7. William Ivancic, Phillip Paulsen, Dave Stewart, Wesley 

Eddy, James McKim, John Taylor, Scott Lynch, Jay 

Heberle, James Northam, Chris Jackson, Lloyd Wood: 

“Large File Transfers From Space Using Multiple Ground 

Terminals and Delay-Tolerant Networking,” paper 

1569303096, IEEE Globecom 2010, December 2010. 

8. http://rtmm.nsstc.nasa.gov/ October 2010 

9. S. Bradner, “The Internet Standards Process—Revision 3,” 

RFC 2026, BCP-9, October 1996. 

10. S. Hartman, “Experiment in Long-Term Suspensions 

From Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) Mailing 

Lists,” RFC 4633, August 2006. 

Biography 

William Ivancic has over twentyseven years of experience in network and 

system engineering for communication 

applications, communication networking 

research, state-of-the-art digital, analog 

and RF hardware design and testing. He 

currently is a senior research engineer at 

NASA’s Glenn Research Center. Of 

particular interest is large scale, secure 

deployment of mobile networks including mobile-ip and 

mobile router technology. Mr. Ivancic is currently working on 

communication protocols and network designs to improve the 

data delivery for Unmanned Aeronautic Vehicles (UAVs). 

Mr. Ivancic is also principle of Syzygy Engineering, a small 

consulting company specializing in communications systems 

and networking as well as advanced technology risk 

assessment. Mr. Ivancic is currently performing research and 

development on Identity-based security and key and policy 

management and distribution for tactical networks—

particularly mobile networks. 
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Personnel in the NASA Glenn Research Center Network and Architectures branch have performed a variety of research related to spacebased sensor webs, network centric operations, security and delay tolerant networking (DTN). Quality documentation and communications, 

real-time monitoring and information dissemination are critical in order to perform quality research while maintaining low cost and utilizing 

multiple remote systems. This has been accomplished using a variety of Internet technologies often operating simultaneously. This paper 

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