Otherlight Communication is the technology of using Otherlight to to enable faster-than-light communication. Early forms of Otherlight Communication required sending physical objects through Otherlight using an Otherlight Shift Module, a highly expensive and inefficient process and one in which it was difficult to reach speeds of more than three or four C at a reasonable cost.
More modern forms instead use modulated electro-magnetic waves transmitted through Otherlight to enable them to travel significantly faster than on the surface. Since EM waves always travel at the speed of light, the Impossible Acceleration Paradox can be used to massively increase the speed of transmission without the need for additional energy input. The process of burying EM waves is also significantly less energy intensive than that for physical objects, because they have no mass (shut up). The main difficulty with this form of communication is associated with picking up the transmission at the other end. Two solutions have been developed to this problem.
Otherlight Tightbeam
The first and easiest solution to the reception problem is to use a tightbeam communicator. This involves directly targeting the intended recipient and beaming the waves onto their receiver. By encoding an emergence point at the point of transmission through the provision of an ‘energy kick’, the waves can be impelled to emerge back into real space in close proximity to the recipient, where they can be picked up by any form of conventional radio receiver. Naturally the emergence point is usually set a little short, as overshooting the transmission means it will not be picked up at all, while even a major undershoot will usually only bring in some minor interference.
Tightbeam has numerous advantages, primarily its efficiency, simplicity, and avoidance of the need for an expensive Transdimensional Receiver. However, it is also relatively short-ranged (depending on transmission depth, and hence speed), requires exact positional data on the recipient, and involves a fairly complex set of calculations to determine the correct emergence point. The need for an ‘energy kick’ to force the waves back into real space is also a slight inefficiency at the transmitter’s end, and can sometimes introduce interference to a transmission, or even damage a receiver, if some remnants of this high-energy burst are not used up in the emergence process.
Otherlight Frequency Monitoring
Otherlight Frequency Monitoring (OFM) is a rather more complex solution, reliant on the use of a Transdimensional Receiver to observe certain depths and frequencies. This allows transmitters to send wide-area messages that will be received by anyone keyed in to the correct depth-frequency, facilitating long-range, multiple-target, and general-interest broadcasts.
The main disadvantage to OFM is the complexity and cost of Transdimensional Receivers, which use small Otherlight Shift Modules to exist partially-realised in multiple depths of reality, allowing them to receive messages in Otherlight, then relay them to the ship in realspace. It should be noted that new innovations are allowing cheaper and more efficient receivers, such as drones that can be detached from the mother-ship while in Otherlight and left there to receive and relay messages. The more significant problem is that plenty of shipping will not be equipped with a suitable receiver, so important messages can go unseen if they are sent solely via OFM transmissions.
The other complication is the need for shared frequencies. The problem is twofold: firstly, the need for associated vessels to have access to a set of common frequencies that are not used by others; secondly, the need to change or conceal the frequencies so the message cannot be either intercepted or, worse, interdicted. Various powers and groups have taken various solutions to this, often by regularly changing frequencies on certain code-bands, and having multiple pre-prepared frequencies to switch between in the event one becomes compromised.
Otherlight Communications Networks
Otherlight Communications Networks are the backbone of an interstellar civilisation’s communications infrastructure, making use of both OFM and tightbeam transmissions to ensure the rapid and efficient relaying of messages. The most important components of a network are Receiver Buoys and Relay Stations.
While more and more ships are directly equipped with OFM equipment, it still remains common practice to instead tightbeam (or even use regular radio) the local receiver buoy. The buoy will then use either tightbeam or OFM, as appropriate, to send the message, via other buoys, relays, and boosters, to the recipient system. There it will be picked up by the local receiver buoy, which will locate the recipient and transmit the message to them by Otherlight Tightbeam. In this way, a well-built network enables ships with even rudimentary communications equipment to transmit high-speed messages across space.
More advanced shipboard communications are coming into service as maturing technologies become cheaper and more widespread, but bypassing the network entirely will inevitably result in a much slower and/or more inefficient communication.