NSF Preps New, Improved Internet -- badly over-hyped reporting djf

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

As one of an informal group that met with NSF prior to the release of  
a two fact sheets, this has a severe case of over-hype  and some  
serious errors. But what the h_ll  djf


NSF Preps New, Improved Internet
By Mark Baard
Story location: <http://www.wired.com/news/technology/ 
0,1282,68667,00.html>

02:11 PM Aug. 26, 2005 PT

The National Science Foundation is backing a major initiative that  
could lead to a completely new internet architecture, with built-in  
security measures and support for ubiquitous sensors and wireless  
communications devices, among other things.

The Global Environment for Networking Investigations, or GENI, will  
include a research grant program to fund new architectures and an  
experimental facility, which has not yet been planned in detail.

The little-noticed initiative was announced Wednesday at a meeting of  
the Special Interest Group on Data Communication in Philadelphia.

The GENI experimental facility will be "designed to explore new  
(network) architectures at scale," according to the SIGCOMM  
announcement.

GENI (pronounced "genie") will "enable the vision of pervasive  
computing and bridge the gap between the physical and virtual worlds  
by including mobile, wireless and sensor networks," the NSF  
announcement read.

GENI came out of an idea for a "clean slate" internet, which has been  
discussed by NSF Networking Technology and Systems program director  
Guru Parulkar, MIT senior research scientist David Clark and other  
network architects in recent years.

Clark served as chief protocol architect for the government's  
internet development initiative in the 1980s. He believes that new  
network designs are needed to overcome the viruses, identity theft  
and other threats plaguing the internet's decades-old infrastructure.

The original internet was not designed for security from targeted  
attacks, said University of California at Los Angeles professor  
Leonard Kleinrock, who led the development and installation of the  
internet in the late 1960s.

"Security is one of those stepsisters of our field," said Kleinrock.  
"It was not built in to the original internet. We had a philosophy  
and culture of trust. Everything we do now (for security) is  
patchwork, which makes it much harder."

The initiative will promote network architectures that balance  
"privacy and accountability and vary protections for individuals  
based on "difference and local values," the announcement read.

A new internet could also be made to support the privacy choices of  
individuals and communities as sensors and communications devices  
become more ubiquitous, GENI organizers hope.

People already lack privacy and security on the internet, said  
Princeton University professor and SIGCOMM chairwoman Jennifer  
Rexford, one of the GENI organizers.

"(Security) is an incredibly important problem today," Rexford said.  
"And if you don't solve that problem, you haven't solved anything."

Princeton is one of three universities that manages the PlanetLab  
experimental network, which provided some of the inspiration for  
GENI. Princeton professor Larry Peterson, a member of the PlanetLab  
steering committee, is also working on GENI.

Too little privacy on the internet will further erode confidence in e- 
commerce, said Rexford. But too much privacy could make it difficult  
to detect attacks on the network. Rexford envisions a network that  
could strike a balance between the two "by offering a vast spectrum  
of opting-in and opting-out."

The GENI experimental facility will likely be connected to the  
National LambdaRail and Internet2 experimental networks.

But GENI will be a unique facility, with experimental hardware, "new  
classes of platforms and networks" and "new computing paradigms  
enabled by pervasive devices," according to the announcement.

GENI will also bridge the gap between current high-speed research  
networks and ordinary internet users. The program will invite large- 
scale participation from individuals drawn by exciting new  
applications running on the network.

[snip]

Weblog at: <http://weblog.warpspeed.com>



-------------------------------------
You are subscribed as lists-ip () insecure org
To manage your subscription, go to
 http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip

Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/