7.4 Ship-to-Ship Communications

Distant communications among most starships, starbases, and planetary systems continue to be made through ultrahigh-power subspace transceivers of various origins and capabilities. Voice and data transmissions between Deep Space 9 and starships are entered in the overall category of ship-to-ship com, since the station is considered in some instances to be a mobile platform. The subspace radio hardware installed on the station is more than adequate to maintain contact with distant ships, since the Cardassian units communicated with their home world, and the Starfleet units came from operational starships.

Ships attached to Deep Space 9, including the U.S.S. Defiant, Runabouts Rio Grande and Rubicon, and Klingon Defense Forces ships such as the I.K.S. Rotaran, maintain contact with one another and the station over their primary subspace systems, with lower-power RF transceivers as backups. All communications data is currently transferred at a maximum rate of 53.45 kiloquads per second, owing to compression algorithms and higher frequency subspace energy. The higher frequency equates to a deeper "layer" of subspace along which the transmission waves travel before surfacing to become slower, degraded EM radiation.

As with station-to-ground com, ship-to-ship traffic involves the Starfleet-Bajoran administration as well as commercial voice and data. During benign situations, both types typically begin with the standard hailing packet for computer routing and universal translator initiation. Starfleet communications between ships and stations are handled by secure channels and flight-logging protocols. Commercial traffic may or may not require similar measures.