[Air-l] A definition of the internet

[Robert Cannon]

> > I pretty much concur... with the caveat as you
> mention the slow but 
> > supposedly impending move to IP v 6...  and with
> the idea that the 
> > functionality of TCP/IP actually being
> replaced.... by an equivalent or 
> > better protocol/protocol defining mechanism.


The logical layer protocol has migrated from NCP to
IPv4 to IPv6.  There are those who refer to the
Internet as starting in 1969 as the ARPANet using NCP
- I would agree.  In 1980 the network has a Y2K style
migration to IP.  And now it has a snails pace
migration to IPv6.  These are software upgrades - but
the network has remained the same network.

> > Another way we risk this shift away from the
> Internet is in the calls 
> > for building more "Intelligence" into the network
> (sometimes with 
> > 'security' being the driving wedge).  Reading
> David Isenberg's work on 
> > the "Rise of the Stupid Network" we see the
> virtues of the TCP/IP based 
> > networks as one where the intelligence of the
> network is by design at 
> > the edges.
>
> Young services not doing so well:  "walled garden"
> instant messaging 
> programs where a "smart" server is controlled by
> some corporation.  AIM, 
> MSN, Yahoo! IM, etc all fall into this camp.
> 


The smart server may be in the middle of the IM
service, but in terms of the layer 3/4 logical
Internet network, it is still on an end.  The IP
network continues to be "stupid" routing those packets
exactly the same as any other packets, with the
minimal amount of processing possible in order to
maximize transmission.  The router - the network - is
not optimized for any one application - is apathetic
to what application you run - and passes all traffic
equally.

The evolutionary move away from the stupid network is
not something at the application layer - but at the
Internet layer - the rise of deep packet inspection,
filtering, and routing.  In the past, routers expended
as little processing power as possible to enable those
packets to fly.  But if the router is so powerful that
a processing overhead will not impair transmission,
then the packets can be processed - and acted on
accordingly.  Now you have routers that are
intelligently and can treat different packets
differently.  Routers can say application X gets
priority - or user Y gets priority - or application Z
will be blocked - or traffic to destination V will
instead by routed to destination Q.

This is also a dramatic change from the stupid
network. Intelligence is back in the network and
discrimination of traffic is possible.



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Cybertelecom :: Federal Internet Law & Policy  www.cybertelecom.org

Read Garrison Keillor, Congress' shameful retreat from American values, Chicago Tribune Oct 4 http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-0610040035oct04,1,2100411.column?ctrack=1&cset=true