Re A $2 Million Contest Seeks Solutions to Big Internet Challenges

["Dave Farber" <farber () gmail com>]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Brett Glass <brett () lariat net>
> Date: August 29, 2017 at 1:00:37 PM EDT
> To: dave () farber net
> Subject: Re: [IP] A $2 Million Contest Seeks Solutions to Big Internet Challenges
>
> Dave, and everyone:
>
> There are good reasons why a network of refrigerators (or cell phones!) wouldn't replace the current Internet in the 
> event of a failure. Mesh networks are woefully inefficient and slow, and would quickly saturate due to destructive 
> competition for available spectrum and bandwidth-hogging apps running on the very devices that created them. True 
> resiliency requires sound engineering and analysis, regulation of bandwidth demand as well as supply, and traffic 
> management which is not available by default in the primitive TCP/IP protocol suite.
>
> As for the "off the grid" challenge: WISPs are already solving this problem. WISPs mobilized to provide 
> communications in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and will likely do so again in the wake of Hurricane Harvey. 
> (I've already volunteered to participate in relief efforts if my services are required.)
>
> Thus, both of these challenges start with misstatements of the problems for which they seek solutions, and then go on 
> to suggest "solutions" which have long been proven not to work in the real world whilst ignoring ones that have 
> actually worked. 
>
> --Brett Glass
>
> At 05:22 AM 8/26/2017, you wrote:
>  
>
>
>
> > Begin forwarded message:
> >
> > > From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () warpspeed com >
> > > Date: August 26, 2017 at 7:07:46 AM EDT
> > > To: Multiple recipients of Dewayne-Net < dewayne-net () warpspeed com>
> > > Subject: [Dewayne-Net] A $2 Million Contest Seeks Solutions to Big Internet Challenges
> > > Reply-To: dewayne-net () warpspeed com 
> > >
> > > [Note:  This item comes from friend Gary Rimar.  DLH]
> > >
> > > A $2 Million Contest Seeks Solutions to Big Internet Challenges
> > > While the fictional geniuses in HBO’s “Silicon Valley” aim to reinvent the Internet, Mozilla and the NSF hope prize 
> > > money will attract real-world innovations
> > > By TEKLA S. PERRY
> > > Aug 23 2017
> > > < http://spectrum.ieee.org/telecom/internet/a-2-million-contest-seeks-solutions-to-big-internet-challenges >
> > >
> > > In the season finale of HBO’s television series “Silicon Valley,” fictional startup company Pied Piper’s attempt to 
> > > create a decentralized Internet appears to have failed spectacularly, thanks to mobile-phone explosions and a 
> > > disastrous attempt to move a server. But then the distraught founders discover that their network is actually 
> > > ticking along just fine. How? It turns out that the network has jumped to smart refrigerators. Now that’s resilient!
> > >
> > > The Internet of Refrigerators is, of course, fiction. But could an Internet that is this resilient­or nearly 
> > > so­become a reality? Mozilla and the U.S. National Science Foundation think it’s possible, and they aim to 
> > > accelerate its creation by offering US $2 million in prize money to the teams that invent it­or at least get close.
> > >
> > > “We’ve picked two of the most challenging situations in which people are disconnected from the Internet,” Mozilla 
> > > program manager Mehan Jayasuriya told me. These are “connecting people in the U.S. who don’t have reliable or 
> > > affordable Internet, and connecting people as quickly as possible after a major disaster, when the traditional 
> > > networks go down.”
> > >
> > > Mozilla and the NSF are addressing that first group­an estimated 34 million people­with the “Smart-Community 
> > > Networks Challenge.” It seeks wireless technology designed to enhance Internet connectivity by building on top of 
> > > existing infrastructure.
> > >
> > > For the second group, there’s the “Off-the-Grid Internet Challenge.” This contest is seeking technology that can be 
> > > quickly deployed after a disaster to allow people to communicate if and when Internet access is gone.
> > >
> > > The teams submit initial designs and then, later, working prototypes. Prizes at the design stage range from $10,000 
> > > to $60,000. At the working prototype stage, the stakes range from $50,000 to $400,000, with a top award given for 
> > > each challenge category.
> > >
> > > “A lot of projects out there address some parts of these problems,” says Jayasuriya. “With $2 million on the table, 
> > > we are hoping this challenge encourages people to fill their technologies out.”
> > >
> > > Were HBO’s Pied Piper an actual company, it would have a decent chance at winning some of that cash. Says 
> > > Jayasuriya: “It’s the kind of thing we are looking for­a big idea, a crazy idea, an idea about how you piggyback on 
> > > things that already exist. Pied Piper’s approach is like that, looking at all the phones out there and thinking 
> > > that these phones have radios, and power, and CPUs, so why wouldn’t you take them and turn them into nodes on a 
> > > network?”
> > >
> > > [snip]
> > >
> > > Dewayne-Net RSS Feed: http://dewaynenet.wordpress.com/feed/
> > > Twitter: https://twitter.com/wa8dzp
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