Suitably Flip

The Etherwebs Are Doomed, Time To Start Fresh

Thanks, Al.  You invented us a lemon.

According to a "growing number of scientists" (how fittingly suggestive of a vague scientific preponderance) the internet is reaching a tipping point of complexity and abuse, thanks to exploding demand for high-bandwidth video, the proliferation of non-PC internet devices and legions of spammers, hackers, phishers, and other cyber scourges.

If left unchecked, they say the very framework upon which the internet is built will not be able to sustain viability merely through incremental improvements in speed, space, bandwidth, and security.

We need to junk it and start anew.

Indeed, researchers say, it is time to rethink all the old notions from the late 1960s and 1970s when the Internet was in its infancy. While few think it is possible to literally start over, there are a number of so-called clean-slate research programs that start with the premise that anything is possible and no option is too far out to consider.

Nick McKeown, a computer scientist at Stanford University, heads up one such program. He says the Internet is "broken" in at least two places — security and mobility.

Happily, the U.S. will still be in charge.

The National Science Foundation has funded Internet research for many years, but most of its projects have been of the incremental improvement variety, and most have not involved proving out new ideas on a large scale, with millions of users, says Deborah Crawford, deputy assistant director for computer and information science and engineering at the NSF.

But now the NSF is gearing up to build a $300 million to $400 million clean slate on which researchers can chalk up and test radical new ideas. The Global Environment for Networking Innovation, or GENI, will be a giant test laboratory stretching across the U.S., complete with wired and wireless computers, routers, switches, management software and subnets of wireless, cellular, sensor and radio devices. It will include a fiber-optic backbone and tail circuits to some 200 universities.

That ought to irk the EU.

Comments

The Etherwebs Are Doomed, Time To Start Fresh

Thanks, Al.  You invented us a lemon.

According to a "growing number of scientists" (how fittingly suggestive of a vague scientific preponderance) the internet is reaching a tipping point of complexity and abuse, thanks to exploding demand for high-bandwidth video, the proliferation of non-PC internet devices and legions of spammers, hackers, phishers, and other cyber scourges.

If left unchecked, they say the very framework upon which the internet is built will not be able to sustain viability merely through incremental improvements in speed, space, bandwidth, and security.

We need to junk it and start anew.

Indeed, researchers say, it is time to rethink all the old notions from the late 1960s and 1970s when the Internet was in its infancy. While few think it is possible to literally start over, there are a number of so-called clean-slate research programs that start with the premise that anything is possible and no option is too far out to consider.

Nick McKeown, a computer scientist at Stanford University, heads up one such program. He says the Internet is "broken" in at least two places — security and mobility.

Happily, the U.S. will still be in charge.

The National Science Foundation has funded Internet research for many years, but most of its projects have been of the incremental improvement variety, and most have not involved proving out new ideas on a large scale, with millions of users, says Deborah Crawford, deputy assistant director for computer and information science and engineering at the NSF.

But now the NSF is gearing up to build a $300 million to $400 million clean slate on which researchers can chalk up and test radical new ideas. The Global Environment for Networking Innovation, or GENI, will be a giant test laboratory stretching across the U.S., complete with wired and wireless computers, routers, switches, management software and subnets of wireless, cellular, sensor and radio devices. It will include a fiber-optic backbone and tail circuits to some 200 universities.

That ought to irk the EU.