Community Communications Infrastructure

TM Community CommunicationsInfrastructure 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 The Network

HISTORY 2: LAST DAYS OF NSFNET “Backbone”

HISTORY 3:NAP CONCEPT DEBUT NAP NAP NAP

IX IX Internet Exchange big global transit provider 1 big global transit provider 2 big global transit provider 3 RXP RXP RXP NSP NSP RegionalExchangePoint NSP NSP NSP NSP Today’s Internet

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 trendsand 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.

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

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

Telco1 Telco2 Telco3 Policyboundary Cable1 Cable3 Cable2 Informationutilityoperator ISP1 ISP2 New1 Shared vs. dedicated infrastructure Telco Cable ISP Power

Data meter Shared vs. dedicated infrastructure Telco1 Telco Telco2 Telco3 Policyboundary Cable Cable1 Church ISP Cable2 Informationutilityoperator ISP1 Power 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

Data meter An information utility Business owned Telco1 Home orbusiness Telco2 Paper1 Utilityowned Cable1 Cable3 Library ISP1 ISP2 Schools

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 acommunity 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 acommunity network? ISP1 ISP2

So how do we make acommunity network? MPAC Cable ISP1 Cable ISP2

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

So how do we make acommunity network? MPAC Jordan ISP1 Community NetworkInfrastructure Cable Wayne Cable ISP2 Garth 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

Community Communications Infrastructure