TM
Community Communications
Infrastructure
Brian K. Reid, Director
Network Systems Laboratory
Digital Equipment Corporation
Palo Alto, California USA http://www.research.digital.com/nsl/

Technology and History

Technology and history are inseparable.

Consistently 3 kinds of technology have most affected history:
– Violence and war
– Communication and transport
– Food production

To change the world

To change the world, you change what people do

To change what people do, you must either
– Make the old way harder (force)
– Make the new way easier (seduction)
– Make the new way habitual (education)

Examples: technology changing the world

Negative numbers allowed business credit, margins, loans, deficit spending

Stirrup allowed mounted soldiers

Roman roads allowed the maintenance of empires

Telegraph allowed large corporations

Railroads allowed central production

Electronic banking virtualized money

ATM Machines totally changed the travel and casino industry.

My premise:

The technology known as Internetworking is going to change the world more than any of these.

Most people don’t understand Internetworking.

Most people who think they understand
Internetworking, and who make a living as Internet consultants, don’t understand Internetworking.

This is because they think it is a technology.

Vocabulary

“Telecommunications” is about how to get information from one place to another.

“Networking” is about having some control over the source, destination, and manner of communication.

“Internetworking” is about coping with boundaries, enemies, idiots, monopolists, ownership, laws, governments, and other nuisances. Focus is on:
– Lust for power and control
– Quest for allocation of blame
– Minimization of cost (economic and political)

alas, The Internet does not exist.
Never has.

The thing that we call The Internet is just the joining together of other networks.

Each exist for the benefit of its owners.

Right now those owners want to be plugged in, and are willing to pay for it.

The Internet will exist only as long as they keep being willing to pay for it.

But The Internet is

The thing that we call The Internet is not a noun,

It is not something that people have built

Rather, it is a set of agreements about what people
want to do.

Freedom of the press extends only to those who own one.

HISTORY 1: OLD ARPANET DAYS

HISTORY 2: LAST DAYS OF NSFNET
“Backbone”

HISTORY 3:NAP CONCEPT DEBUT
NAP
NAP
NAP

Today’s Internet
RX
P
IX Internet Exchange big global transit provider 1 big global transit provider 2 big global transit provider 3
Regional
Exchange
Point
RX
P
NSP NSP
NSP NSP
IX
RXP
NSP
NSP

How to engineer anything

Get an idea

Try it out. Build a prototype. Live with it for a while.

Find out if anybody besides you likes it, and, if they do, are they willing to pay for it.
– This is called “market research” and engineers hate it because they are not usually very good at it.

Figure out how to make it, package it, ship it, install it, ship it, get melted cheese out of it, upgrade it, etc.

Get customers. They will tell you that you did it all wrong. Listen to them and try again.

Quiz for 4th-grade daughter
Elizabeth, this envelope contains a number. If you pick a number, and multiply your number by the one that is in this envelope, the answer will be the same as your number.
What number is in the envelope? 2?
Dad, that’s a dumb question. It has to be 1.
Why?
um,...

Quiz for you
I am holding a concept in this envelope. It enables users of most computer networks in the world to communicate with each other. What is it?

Why I call this “the Internet”

If it acts like 1, then it’s 1

If it connects to the Internet, then it is the Internet

Everything will connect somewhere to the Internet

Three trends and an axiom

Deregulation of power and telecommunication, with all that it implies.

More faster computers , cheaper better computers, ubiquitous computers. Computers under every rock.

Everything connected to everything. Internetworking on a scale never seen before.

Locality matters . Internet technology is being used to do things that are intrinsically local. Globality is good, but locality is crucial.

Part I: the impact of deregulation
Deregulation Multiple players
Policy boundaries
Smaller chunks
Must pay attention to policy boundaries
Cost equations different
Replacement realistic
Entry cost of competition lower

Part II: shared vs. dedicated infrastructure
Cable via ADSL
Telco
Dialup Internet
Cable
Internet via cable
ISP
Netcasting
Power
Internet via power

Shared vs. dedicated infrastructure
Telco
Cable
Policy boundary
ISP
Power
Information utility operator
Telco1
Telco2
Telco3
Cable1
Cable3
Cable2
ISP1
ISP2
New1

Shared vs. dedicated infrastructure
Telco
Cable
ISP
Power
Policy boundary
Information utility operator
Data meter
Telco1
Telco2
Telco3
Cable1
Church
Cable2
ISP1
ISP2
New1

Locality matters

Internet technology is being used to do distinctly non-global things.

Certain phenomena, like very high speed, are intrinsically local by the laws of physics

Public non-global networks are important. Examples:
– Cable-TV-like systems
– Local-angle merchandising, news distribution
– Access to schools, hospitals, libraries, city hall

Shared infrastructure

Historically, governments have enabled shared infrastructure:
– Septic tanks --> sewage treatment
– Private generators --> electric companies
– Railroads --> public roads
– Vigilantes --> police force

Motivation for sharing comes from several sources:
– economic: roads, libraries
– political: police force, sewers
– social: town halls, events, etc.

Notes about shared infrastructure

Railroads were dedicated infrastructure. The
Southern Pacific Railway owned right of way, tracks, freight cars, engines, and stations.

Some early highways were privately owned.

Public highways are shared infrastructure.

Delivery companies do not own roads, they own trucks. Cities and states and counties own roads.

It is possible to have monopolies anyhow, e.g. only 1 taxi company

An information utility
Home or business
Data meter
Utility owned
Telco1
Telco2
Paper1
Cable1
Cable3
Library
ISP1
ISP2
Schools
Business owned

Community networking?

The Internet is a collection of networks

A big collection.

Some are commercial, some are not.

My home has a network. Maybe yours does too.

My home network connects to the Internet, and is therefore part of it.

What about community networks? How many are there? Who owns them? What do they do?

They are part of the Internet because they connect to it.

So how do we make a community network?
ISP1
ISP2

So how do we make a community network?
ISP1
ISP2

So how do we make a community network?
ISP1
ISP2

A good community network has:

Low-cost communication with local resources
(schools, libraries, government, freenets, etc.)

High-speed connection to ISPs selling global access.

Any customer can run a local information service.

Must pay an ISP for long-distance data transport for a global information service.

So how do we make a community network?
ISP1
ISP2

So how do we make a community network?
ISP1
ISP2

So how do we make a community network?
ISP1
ISP2

So how do we make a community network?
MPAC Cable
ISP1
Cable
ISP2

So how do we make a community network?
MPAC Jordan
Wayne
Cable
Garth
ISP1
Cable
ISP2
Telco2

So how do we make a community network?
MPAC Jordan
Wayne
Cable
Garth
ISP1
Cable
ISP2
Telco2

So how do we make a community network?
MPAC Jordan
Wayne
Cable
Garth
ISP1
Cable
ISP2
Telco2

So how do we make a community network?
MPAC Jordan
Community Network
Infrastructure
Wayne
Cable
Garth
ISP1
Cable
ISP2
Telco2

Good fences make good neighbors

The fundamental principle of the Internet: by sharing infrastructure, we all get better communication.

Where there is sharing, there are boundaries

Where boundaries exist, all parties must agree on the location and nature of the boundaries.

Experience in Internet operation has created consensus of where is a good place to draw boundaries.

Better communication enables new communication concepts.

Mending Wall
Before I built a wall I'd ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offense.
Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That wants it down.' I could say 'Elves' to him,
But it's not elves exactly, and I'd rather
He said it for himself. I see him there
Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top
In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed.
He moves in darkness as it seems to me
Not of woods only and the shade of trees.
He will not go behind his father's saying,
And he likes having thought of it so well
He says again, "Good fences make good neighbors."

Copy of presentation?
http://reid.org/brian/11jun98.html