more on Network management and control (was: "Re: more on 1972 ARPANET Film ...")

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Karl Auerbach <karl () cavebear com>
Date: March 19, 2006 9:21:52 PM EST
To: lauren () vortex com
Cc: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Subject: Re: [IP] Network management and control (was: "Re: more on  
1972 ARPANET Film ...")
Reply-To: Karl Auerbach <karl () cavebear com>


> From: Lauren Weinstein <lauren () vortex com>

> ... but in terms of the sort of "network management and control"  
> that Suzanne mentioned, we've moved seriously backwards -- perhaps  
> to the edge of a potential operational abyss in some significant ways.

One concern that is rarely, if every, discussed is how our drive to  
secure this and DRM that is creating a situation where, if the net is  
ever broken, it could be very difficult to reassemble (especially as  
we construct ever more intricate dependencies between the net and  
other infrastructures like the phone system and power grid.)

My own particular concern is what happens to communities that suffer  
human or natural disasters and have the people, competence,  
equipment, and electrical power to start locally rebuilding their  
communications infrastructure but find that they can not do it  
because due to security and DRM locks they simply do not have the  
power or authority.

Living as I do in a place that far too frequently seems to receive  
nature's wrath (earthquake, fire, flood, landslide, large ocean  
waves, nutcase who likes to dynamite power towers ... ) we've come to  
learn that when things go south it's going to take a while before the  
outside notices and is able to dig its way in.  So we've learned the  
value and necessity of recovering from the inside out.

In that spirit, several years ago I proposed to ICANN the possibility  
of "DNS on a CDROM" (now "DNS on a DVD") - essentially Knoppix (CD/ 
DVD based Linux, no hard disk required, shove it into a PC, even a  
Windows PC, and boot) with a runnable DNS server that had a skeletal,  
but usable DNS hierarchy from root to com/net/org/....  ICANN pooh- 
poohed it without discussion, I think because of the source of the  
idea as opposed to the merits of the idea.

But that's not my main point.

For a long time I have argued that we need to start looking at the  
internet as a distributed process rather than a collection of  
individual machines.  And in that distributed process we need to  
start understanding the pathology of that system and not merely  
devise tests, but also creating test points, so that we can find  
problems and repair them.

See my talk "From Barnstorming to Boeing - Transforming the Internet  
Into a Lifeline Utility" at:

  http://www.cavebear.com/rw/Barnstorming-to-Boeing.ppt

with the notes at

  http://www.cavebear.com/rw/Barnstorming-to-Boeing.pdf

                --karl--







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