Deep Space 9 must accommodate a variety of commercial, scientific, and military space traffic. The docking facilities have been designed to provide adaptable connections to many different personnel and cargo transfer tunnels.

     The Docking Ring encompasses two of the three dock systems. The large primary docking ports are located at the junctions of the extreme outboard ends of the crossover bridges, Docking Pylons, and Docking Ring.

     The docking clamps empl0oy a combination of electrohydraulic grab plates and short-range amplitude-pulse tractor field emitters.