Interstellar Age

The Interstellar Age (IA) is a period of history in that marks the point when the four major factions of Gliese Space - EL-AL, NHT, PHAROS and SAINT - created a ceasing of general hostilities, and a continuation of exploration under a single timeline, currency and communications network.

Precursor
Prior to the Interstellar Age, the factions each had their own calendar, currency and data network - as the four factions grew to considerable power and prominence, and the borders of each started to collide, record-keeping between the factions became difficult and trade slowed down to a level not seen since colonisation.

Development
Things finally came to a head in the Miramena Conference, when representatives of all four factions met to discuss the increasing slowdown in trade and communications. After weeks of negotiation all factions agreed to (at least as far as interstellar travel was concerned) unify their calendars, standardize systems of measurement and use a single communications protocol between them.

In addition, the Miramena Conference was expanded into a yearly summit where representatives of the major factions (and recently, of some sizeable independent forces) come together to discuss various issues with regards to Gliese Space.

Technology
The technology that ushered the Interstellar Age was already in some use before the Miramena Conference. Interstellar travel (via warp drive) had been around for nearly four centuries, and jump gate use was commonplace 20 years prior to Miramena. All factions were already using interstellar data networks built using JPPT; however, data security protocols were proprietary and data conversion was difficult if not outright impossible.

During the conference, a compromise was reached - JPPT would still be used as the transmission format, but the data security protocol was defaulted to SAINT's RR5 security protocol, shown to be the most robust by far in data security.

After the conference, implementation was planned and carried out over a period of 15 years. In 16 IA, UnDiNe (short for the Uninterrupted Digital Network) was rolled out as an industry standard - as of present it is the default network connection for all system utilising JPPT.