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Within the setting of WSO for the purposes of technological communications, and stellar scale communications in general, methods of communication and detection adhere to the lightspeed limit. To this end at vast distances such as across a star system, or across the gulf of space between stars information travels at quite an extensive delay, taking years to reach other star systems.
This delay can be partially circumvented through the use of courier ships which carry information between star systems, allowing for information to be relayed between stars in a more timely manner than would be possible with electromagnetic broadcasts. Another alternative is to run communications through an active wormhole gate connection, however the maintenance costs and static nature of such connections limit their usefulness.
In addition to the time delay of communication, within the setting of WSO space based sensor systems need to either detect electromagnetic radiation that has travelled from a source to the sensor, or receive information based on radiation projected by the sensor and reflected off of an object or starship and has returned to the sensor. At distances beyond a light second information on objects comes with a delay resulting in knowledge gained from sensors being out-dated relative to the actual position of an object. This allows for starships within the setting to operate with a greater degree of stealth and misdirection as the exact position of starships is not easily ascertainable at large distances.