Peer to peer networks Distributed innovation

1. Peer to peer networks Distributed innovation Niloy Ganguly IIT Kharagpur National Conference on Decentralized Innovation: Focus on Rural and Small Urban Enterprises 16-17 March 2007

2. Talk Overview • Peer to peer networks • Introduction and various utilities • P2p in social perspective • Random thoughts • Emerging Technologies • Ultra cheap Telephony

3. Peer To Peer Network Most Direct Method of Connecting Computers • Simple • Inexpensive • No Boss • No Regulation

4. Peer To Peer Network Most Direct Method of Connecting Computers • Simple • Inexpensive • No Boss • No Regulation

5. Peer To Peer Network PCs at the edge of the network are called “Peers” Peers can retrieve objects directly from each other Advantages of a P2P Network A large collection of peers may be available for content distribution--sometimes millions! User takes advantage of the network’s currently available resources.

6. Application – File sharing P2P networks generate more traffic than any other internet application 2/3 of all bandwidth on some backbones Machines exchange files within themselves Each machine shares a set of files Topology of Gnutella Network

7. Application – File sharing

8. Application – Internet Telephony Skype • VoIP: • Voice over IP (Internet Protocol) • Telephony over the Internet • Skype: • Most popular VoIP application • Free calls to other Skype users • Cheap calls (~ 1p/min) to landlines & mobiles • Various add-on facilities also available

9. Application – Internet Telephony Skype • Skype as a telephone • Skype can be used as a conventional telephone • Particularly useful on laptops for the traveller • Sense of presence – know if recipient is online (can switch off) • Instant messaging • Additional features: • Integration with Web browser (sharing browsing) • Video Skype

10. Usage Scenarios • How Skype can be used: • Conventional phone replacement (office/home) • On laptops, when travelling • Conference calls (on-the-fly) • Listening in to lectures (nb. accessibility benefits) • Recording talks (e.g. interviews for Podcasts) • Support for remote workers • Help desk support (e.g. VoIP-based Ask Me reference desk) • ….

11. Application – Distributed Processing Huge number crunching for Cancer Research Seti@Home - Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Two million computers crunching data gathered from the Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico. The project produces over 15 teraflops[4] of processing throughput. As a comparison, ANSI white, the world's most powerful supercomputer, produces 12 teraflops of processing throughput at a cost of us$110 million.

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13. Talk Overview • Peer to peer networks • Introduction and various utilities • P2p in social perspective • Random thoughts • Emerging Technologies • Ultra cheap Telephony

14. Placing p2p in the context of the evolution of technology • Tribal-era technologies – extremities of limbs • Agricultural technologies – extension of muscular systems • Industrial era – central body and internal metabolic functions • Information age – nervous system (telephone and telegraph), mind (computer),

15. Placing p2p in the context of the evolution of technology • Participative but not differentiated • Differentiated but not participative • Humans become dumb extension of machine • Machine become intelligent • Machine seen as extension of brain rather than limbs • A participation paradigm arises

16. Hacker ethics • Mass intellectuality increases through formal and informal education • Meaning in life is no longer sought in the sphere of salaried work but through in life in general. • Entertainment is sought through “work” guiding free software production (socialization)

17. Emergence of p2p network • Technological artifacts are a social construction, reflecting various social interests • Capital, engineering communities, critical voice within society, consumers • Internet was explicitly defined to enable peer-to peer collaboration • Technology reflects a new way of being or feeling

18. Emergence of Peer to peer network • One-to-one to many-to-one to many-to-many media • Information abundance • Redundancy of information • Hence extremely robust p2p networks emerge

19. Corporate Changes • Fixed arrangement reduces transaction cost • For business process, keyword becomes flow and integration of endless flow

20. Corporate Changes • Fixed arrangement reduces transaction cost • For business process, keyword becomes flow and integration of endless flow • Flattening of hierarchy • Sub-unit becomes complex, hence to be granted more autonomy • What is produced and not how is it produced. • Peer to peer form of communication is becoming imperative for corporate competitiveness

21. Communism of Capital • Processes no longer internally integrated, externally integrated in vast webs of inter-company cooperation. • Potential damaging consumers. • Workers learning in a series of interaction/ training program • Complexity, innovation-dependent and time-based • E-bay, amazon – consumer feedback

22. Distributed InnovationOpen software • Free software – rejects the ownership of software • Open Source – ownership is there but one can change • Within the systems but partly transcends it • Attractive for efficiency • Used by IBM and Microsoft’s rival, EU • Internet infrastructure – Apache server, Linux • P2p dialogues are not representative dialogues in which participants represent their various religions, rather they are encounters of composite and hybrid experience in which each full expresses his different understanding, building a spiritual commons.

23. Distributed InnovationDeinstitutionalization • No formal rules to engage in knowledge exchange (no formal degrees) • Open Universities – university of Openness • The uo is a framework in which individuals and organizations can pursue their shared interest • Any member may start a faculty to socialize their research with the Uo. • News regulation (trustworthiness) • No need of any Wall Street journal

24. Distributed InnovationDot-com burst and decommodification • Dotcom burst shows use value cannot be converted to exchange value • P2p creates massive use-value, but no automatic exchange value and thus it cannot fund itself • P2p sphere can work with more and more autonomy, creating more and more use value, slowly creating a cohesive system within system

25. Marginal trend or premise of new civilization • Historical development of capitalism in 11th to 13th century • Roman empire • Bernat poirot-delpech in Le Monde – nothing ever changes, we are bored with this country • Argentina after the economic shock

26. Talk Overview • Peer to peer networks • Introduction and various utilities • P2p in social perspective • Random thoughts • Emerging Technologies • Ultra cheap Telephony

27. Emerging Technology – Grid and cluster Supercomputer formed by connecting together a number of small computers with high speed interconnectivity

28. Emerging Technology – Adhoc Network A network where the nodes are the mobile devices. Mobile devices themselves form connectivity within themselves without the help of any base station

29. Emerging Technology – Mesh Network A network of low cost mesh, some of the meshes having satellite connection

30. Emerging Technology – Delay Tolerant Network No need of connection-oriented network. Here nodes act as post-man carrying the information to the destination

31. Talk Overview • Peer to peer networks • Introduction and various utilities • P2p in social perspective • Random thoughts • Emerging Technologies • Ultra cheap Telephony

32. Bangladesh (GrameenPhone) • A few phones (or just one) cover a whole village • ”Telephone ladies” = entrepreneurs: they buy phones and other equipment, & then charge for their use • Loans (microcredit) from Grameen Bank, support from Grameen Telecom • Grameen Phone uses GSM (not the cheapest technology), but charges ½ the urban rate for local calls (0.04$/min in 2001) • Everyone wins! • Farmers & other callers save $$ • Telephone ladies earn well, gain independence & respect • Grameen Phone earns $$ (major owner: Telenor!) • Grameen Bank earns $$, Nobel Peace Prize

33. Local = low cost Ruralfone (Brazil) • Standard GSM is used, but all equipment is produced in Brazil  low cost • Other needed goods purchased locally when possible • Employees are all locally hired (except 2 on management team) • Intense local interaction & contact with customers • Local calls (in town) are cheap • unlimited local calls 16$/month, or • Plano Basico, local calls, 0.10$/min • Launched in Quixadá May 2005, profitable after 10 mos

34. Mesh in the jungle Yachana (FUNEDESIN), Amazonas, Ecuador • Isolated complex (2.5 hours by motorized canoe): high school, ecotourism lodge, science center, medical clinic, offices • Wireless broadband (WiFi) in a mesh network (many-to-many, so access points are also routers) • VoIP over the WiFi mesh • Solar power, satellite uplink  VoIP to Skype: cheap, but has a delay • Plans to link to the cellphone network

35. Towards ultra-cheap telephony(Telenor R&I project) • Choose wireless broadband in unlicensed band • no license fee • mass-produced components  low cost • mesh topology, smart antennas • open source software • handset is not (yet) cheap • focus on stand-alone but accessible communities • local calls can be very cheap • estimate: 70—80% of calls are local • backhaul: wireless point-to-point connection to nearest town with cellular network • A possible cost target: 0.0015$/minute for local calls

36. local cheap Internet P2P; cheap backhaul maybe expensive What about peer-to-peer? • P2P works best on top of reliable connections, building an ’overlay network’ • So other technologies are needed for cheap local access, while P2P can give very cheap connection on a global scale

38. Evolution of Collective Intelligence • Tribal Intelligence • Pyramidal Structure • Swarm Intelligence • Collective Intelligence • Sufficient money • Open standard • Information system to regulate symbolic exchange • Permanent connection with cyberspace • Personal development to acquire the capabilities of such cooperation

39. Cognitive Capitalists • All assets abstracted into stocks, predominance of immaterial flows • Knowledge workers clearly becomes the key sector of the multitudes • Vectorial class - hacker class producing new means of production

40. P2p Dialogues • P2p dialogues are not representative dialogues in which participants represent their various religions , rather they are encounters of composite and hybrid experience in which each full expresses his different understanding, building a spiritual commons.

41. Three scenarios of co-existence • Peaceful co-existence • Cognitive capitalism partly incorporates, partly destroying p2p ethos. • P2p sphere can work with more and more autonomy, creating more and more use value, slowly creating a cohesive system within system.

42. Emerging Technology – Adhoc Network