CoreNet - properly, the Core Systems Interstellar Jumpwave Network - is a revolutionary communication network that allows nearly-instantaneous intersystem communication. Analogous to the Internet in many ways, it is essential to many aspects of modern Republic life. The Spartan Brigade has an experimental version they named "SpartaNet", but coverage is limited and unreliable to date. Recently the Kanbei Cartel has reverse-engineered CoreNet and produced their own version - without the hassle and expense of licensing the technology from the Republic. Lawsuits are ongoing to enjoin Kanbei from continuing to use these illegal transmitters, but no success has been had.
Theory
Although much of the operating theory behind CoreNet is handwaved away as too complex to explain to a lay audience (Ed.: One might suspect the scientists in charge don't understand it either), the general principle is to take information and transform it into a standing jump wave, using similar equipment to a jump engine as a transmitter. Another jump engine on the other end acts as a receiver and converts it back into data, which it then broadcasts to the system on the other side.
Employment
CoreNet is propagated using large repeaters in all Core Systems territories (barring a few troubled areas such as Mumbai), each containing the CoreNet transceiver engines needed to send and receive the immense amounts of data from all sectors. Such satellites have both fusion plants and solar collectors to maintain power, even during high-traffic hours, and have a small-scale gravitic drive to hold position in the often-complex orbit of a system.
Coverage
The web of CoreNet repeaters is an expensive and time-consuming system to maintain, so it takes considerable negotiation to obtain a CoreNet system-broadcast license and a not-inconsequential financial investment to purchase the transceivers themselves - this for Republic systems. It's a fair bet to say that the CoreNet Licensing Committee will be most opposed to any non-Republic body attempting to gain access to the network. This has the result that most foreign nationals - Spartans, members of the Penitent Brotherhood, Mirandolans, and so on - will have virtually no access to CoreNet resources without entering Republic space. One persistent exception to this is the Kanbei Group, which has so far managed to adapt to intercept CoreNet feeds through its own network, despite an ongoing series of lawsuits with CoreNet's Republic backers.
Limitations
The CSIJN is a marvel of modern technology - a technique not even the Jensai have mastered - but with its marvelous benefits, it has a number of fairly large drawbacks. The first is the mechanism behind it - CoreNet transmissions are made by converting data into a standing jumpwave, but this continuous process creates a modulating jumpwave field around it that is nightmarishly difficult to compensate for when a ship is trying to jump out of it. For this reason, no jump should be made within one hundred thousand kilometers of an active CoreNet transceiver.
Second is the physical and power requirements - even though a transceiver never goes anywhere, it is essentially a jump engine that's always running, and it has the fuel needs of one. Even if it were slaved to a larger vessel, all but the power plant of a Mark III CSIJN transceiver satellite still takes up a prohibitive 2400 displacement tons worth of hull space, and requires forty tons of hydrogen a week for continuous operation.
The third caveat has to do with targeting - unlike traditional transmission, jumpwave transmissions need to be calibrated for preset locations, taking into account relative stellar motion, intervening bodies and gravitational inclines - a task consuming several hours. Making the calibration from one 'stationary', orbiting satellite to another is a time-consuming and challenging task - doing so from a stationary body to a moving one formidable, and from a moving body to a moving body, nearly impossible. Generally speaking, it is less expensive, time-consuming and difficult to maintain to use individual CoreNet transceiver satellites on the edge of the hundred-diameter limit and use traditional laser or microwave transmissions to connect planets and stations to the CSIJN.
Security
All CoreNet transmissions are encrypted using high-end algorithms that have (as yet) proved unbreakable. In theory, this allows the public unfettered access with no worries about government monitoring. In practice, however, the encryption is limited to the jump wave itself. Reputable (re: legal) banking systems, corporations with varying levels of security access and government organizations all monitor their CoreNet terminals and log all inbound and outbound traffic. Even private terminals are not totally secure, as the physical system itself can be altered to relay or store CoreNet information that can be accessed by third parties.
Content
CoreNet content varies from sector to sector; usually such information as futures and stock information is transmitted, and live override broadcasts occur on the rare occasions where a Republic-wide announcement is made, usually such as a Board of Regents appointment. Typical examples of programming include Manticore Sector's MantiCoreNet Daily News, with reporters such as Pietro Santiago-Merona, or the fictionalized Navy drama The Retributors.
