From: David Farber <dave@farber.net>
Subject: [IP] Researchers Explore Scrapping Internet
Date: Sat, 14 Apr 2007 06:03:07 -0400
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Begin forwarded message:
From: EEkid@aol.com
Date: April 13, 2007 8:58:12 PM EDT
To: dave@farber.net
Subject: Researchers Explore Scrapping Internet
http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1610306,00.html
Researchers Explore Scrapping Internet
(NEW YORK)=97Although it has already taken nearly four decades to get=20=20
this far in building the Internet, some university researchers with=20=20
the federal government's blessing want to scrap all that and start over.
The idea may seem unthinkable, even absurd, but many believe a "clean=20=20
slate" approach is the only way to truly address security, mobility=20=20
and other challenges that have cropped up since UCLA professor=20=20
Leonard Kleinrock helped supervise the first exchange of meaningless=20=20
test data between two machines on Sept. 2, 1969.
The Internet "works well in many situations but was designed for=20=20
completely different assumptions," said Dipankar Raychaudhuri, a=20=20
Rutgers University professor overseeing three clean-slate projects.=20=20
"It's sort of a miracle that it continues to work well today."
No longer constrained by slow connections and computer processors and=20=20
high costs for storage, researchers say the time has come to rethink=20=20
the Internet's underlying architecture, a move that could mean=20=20
replacing networking equipment and rewriting software on computers to=20=20
better channel future traffic over the existing pipes.
Even Vinton Cerf, one of the Internet's founding fathers as co-=20
developer of the key communications techniques, said the exercise was=20=20
"generally healthy" because the current technology "does not satisfy=20=20
all needs."
One challenge in any reconstruction, though, will be balancing the=20=20
interests of various constituencies. The first time around,=20=20
researchers were able to toil away in their labs quietly. Industry is=20=20
playing a bigger role this time, and law enforcement is bound to make=20=20
its needs for wiretapping known.
There's no evidence they are meddling yet, but once any research=20=20
looks promising, "a number of people (will) want to be in the drawing=20=20
room," said Jonathan Zittrain, a law professor affiliated with Oxford=20=20
and Harvard universities. "They'll be wearing coats and ties and=20=20
spilling out of the venue."
The National Science Foundation wants to build an experimental=20=20
research network known as the Global Environment for Network=20=20
Innovations, or GENI, and is funding several projects at universities=20=20
and elsewhere through Future Internet Network Design, or FIND.
Rutgers, Stanford, Princeton, Carnegie Mellon and the Massachusetts=20=20
Institute of Technology are among the universities pursuing=20=20
individual projects. Other government agencies, including the Defense=20=20
Department, have also been exploring the concept.
The European Union has also backed research on such initiatives,=20=20
through a program known as Future Internet Research and=20=20
Experimentation, or FIRE. Government officials and researchers met=20=20
last month in Zurich to discuss early findings and goals.
A new network could run parallel with the current Internet and=20=20
eventually replace it, or perhaps aspects of the research could go=20=20
into a major overhaul of the existing architecture.
These clean-slate efforts are still in their early stages, though,=20=20
and aren't expected to bear fruit for another 10 or 15 years =97=20=20
assuming Congress comes through with funding.
Guru Parulkar, who will become executive director of Stanford's=20=20
initiative after heading NSF's clean-slate programs, estimated that=20=20
GENI alone could cost $350 million, while government, university and=20=20
industry spending on the individual projects could collectively reach=20=20
$300 million. Spending so far has been in the tens of millions of=20=20
dollars.
And it could take billions of dollars to replace all the software and=20=20
hardware deep in the legacy systems.
Clean-slate advocates say the cozy world of researchers in the 1970s=20=20
and 1980s doesn't necessarily mesh with the realities and needs of=20=20
the commercial Internet.
"The network is now mission critical for too many people, when in the=20=20
(early days) it was just experimental," Zittrain said.
The Internet's early architects built the system on the principle of=20=20
trust. Researchers largely knew one another, so they kept the shared=20=20
network open and flexible =97 qualities that proved key to its rapid=20=20
growth.
But spammers and hackers arrived as the network expanded and could=20=20
roam freely because the Internet doesn't have built-in mechanisms for=20=20
knowing with certainty who sent what.
The network's designers also assumed that computers are in fixed=20=20
locations and always connected. That's no longer the case with the=20=20
proliferation of laptops, personal digital assistants and other=20=20
mobile devices, all hopping from one wireless access point to=20=20
another, losing their signals here and there.
Engineers tacked on improvements to support mobility and improved=20=20
security, but researchers say all that adds complexity, reduces=20=20
performance and, in the case of security, amounts at most to bandages=20=20
in a high-stakes game of cat and mouse.
Workarounds for mobile devices "can work quite well if a small=20=20
fraction of the traffic is of that type," but could overwhelm=20=20
computer processors and create security holes when 90 percent or more=20=20
of the traffic is mobile, said Nick McKeown, co-director of=20=20
Stanford's clean-slate program.
The Internet will continue to face new challenges as applications=20=20
require guaranteed transmissions =97 not the "best effort" approach=20=20
that works better for e-mail and other tasks with less time sensitivity.
Think of a doctor using teleconferencing to perform a surgery=20=20
remotely, or a customer of an Internet-based phone service needing to=20=20
make an emergency call. In such cases, even small delays in relaying=20=20
data can be deadly.
And one day, sensors of all sorts will likely be Internet capable.=20=20
Rather than create workarounds each time, clean-slate researchers=20=20
want to redesign the system to easily accommodate any future=20=20
technologies, said Larry Peterson, chairman of computer science at=20=20
Princeton and head of the planning group for the NSF's GENI.
Even if the original designers had the benefit of hindsight, they=20=20
might not have been able to incorporate these features from the get-=20
go. Computers, for instance, were much slower then, possibly too weak=20=20
for the computations needed for robust authentication.
"We made decisions based on a very different technical landscape,"=20=20
said Bruce Davie, a fellow with network-equipment maker Cisco Systems=20=20
Inc., which stands to gain from selling new products and=20=20
incorporating research findings into its existing line.
"Now, we have the ability to do all sorts of things at very high=20=20
speeds," he said. "Why don't we start thinking about how we take=20=20
advantage of those things and not be constrained by the current=20=20
legacy we have?"
Of course, a key question is how to make any transition =97 and=20=20
researchers are largely punting for now. "Let's try to define where=20=20
we think we should end up, what we think the Internet should look=20=20
like in 15 years' time, and only then would we decide the path,"=20=20
McKeown said. "We acknowledge it's going to be really hard but I=20=20
think it will be a mistake to be deterred by that."
Kleinrock, the Internet pioneer at UCLA, questioned the need for a=20=20
transition at all, but said such efforts are useful for their out-of-=20
the-box thinking. "A thing called GENI will almost surely not become=20=20
the Internet, but pieces of it might fold into the Internet as it=20=20
advances," he said.
Think evolution, not revolution. Princeton already runs a smaller=20=20
experimental network called PlanetLab, while Carnegie Mellon has a=20=20
clean-slate project called 100 x 100.
These days, Carnegie Mellon professor Hui Zhang said he no longer=20=20
feels like "the outcast of the community" as a champion of clean-=20
slate designs. Construction on GENI could start by 2010 and take=20=20
about five years to complete. Once operational, it should have a=20=20
decade-long lifespan.
FIND, meanwhile, funded about two dozen projects last year and is=20=20
evaluating a second round of grants for research that could=20=20
ultimately be tested on GENI. These go beyond projects like Internet2=20=20
and National LambdaRail, both of which focus on next-generation needs=20=20
for speed.
Any redesign may incorporate mechanisms, known as virtualization, for=20=20
multiple networks to operate over the same pipes, making further=20=20
transitions much easier. Also possible are new structures for data=20=20
packets and a replacement of Cerf's TCP/IP communications protocols.
"Almost every assumption going into the current design of the=20=20
Internet is open to reconsideration and challenge," said Parulkar,=20=20
the NSF official heading to Stanford. "Researchers may come up with=20=20
wild ideas and very innovative ideas that may not have a lot to do=20=20
with the current Internet."
See what's free at AOL.com.
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