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Internet Emulator

Posted by michael on from the real-or-memorex dept.

John3 writes "InternetNewsM is reporting that PlanetLab is getting closer to reality. According to this article, a consortium of universities (including Princeton) is launching a test-bed platform based on Red Hat Linux. This project is different than Internet2 or some of the other "alternate Internet" networks being developed, and seems to offer the most benefit to distributed computing projects rather than generic WAN/Internet communications."

26 of 139 comments (clear)

  1. This has exsited for ages. by Chris_Stankowitz · · Score: 4, Funny

    Its call AOL!

  2. REQ: Internet ROM by generic-man · · Score: 5, Funny

    Please send me a copy of the Internet with which I can use this emulator. The preferred means is a station wagon full of DVD-R media.

    --
    For more information, click here.
    1. Re:REQ: Internet ROM by TedCheshireAcad · · Score: 4, Funny

      Maybe you can download it from IRC? I don't know, I think they're still figuring out how to rip it.

    2. Re:REQ: Internet ROM by Exiler · · Score: 5, Funny

      wget *

      --
      Banaaaana!
    3. Re:REQ: Internet ROM by American+AC+in+Paris · · Score: 4, Funny
      Please send me a copy of the Internet with which I can use this emulator. The preferred means is a station wagon full of DVD-R media.

      (+1, Underestimated)

      --

      Obliteracy: Words with explosions

    4. Re:REQ: Internet ROM by Surak · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Interestingly enough, I typed "The Internet" into Google so I get the Google cache in case it got Slashdotted, but look what comes out at the top. Weird huh? :)

      --
      My journal has hot /. gossip.
    5. Re:REQ: Internet ROM by maxume · · Score: 4, Insightful
      Wouldn't it be cheaper to use a station wagon full of hard disks? The cost per GB on hard disks isn't that much higher than it is for DVD-R media, and if you bother to factor in the amount of time it would take to create the DVD-R's versus filling the harddrives, they might come in cheaper. Should be faster to read in to.

      I know that some companies are offering thier GIS datasets on HD instead of cdr now, but they do charge a bit more. Backing up to cdr is pretty useless for 40 Gigs of data though. Ramble Ramble.

      --
      Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
    6. Re:REQ: Internet ROM by jared_hanson · · Score: 5, Funny

      And today, kids, we are going to learn a very important lesson. When someone makes a joke, you should laugh, rather than take it seriously and analyze its details.

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      -- Fighting mediocrity one bad post at a time.
    7. Re:REQ: Internet ROM by skaap · · Score: 5, Funny

      At least it's first result isnt Al Gore's homepage... :)

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      -Rob
    8. Re:REQ: Internet ROM by Surak · · Score: 5, Funny

      Phew. Okay. here's the google cache in case it gets Slashdotted!

      --
      My journal has hot /. gossip.
  3. Is it just me... by Dthoma · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ...or was the article blurb just a bunch of buzzwords stuck together? I mean, each of the clauses in it on its own made sense but the whole blurb just seemed kind of incoherent. It's very thin on actual specifics; this sounds like it could just be more vapourware, unfortunately.

    --

    Note to M1-ers: a curt but otherwise insightful message is not "Flamebait" or "Troll".

    1. Re:Is it just me... by frieked · · Score: 4, Informative

      You're right to say that the blurb sounds like a bunch of buzzwords but this actually isn't vaporware...Planet-lab has actually got a lot of big sponsors (Intel, HP...) behind them and while I don't see this being used for the everyday internet user, Planetlab is the kind of thing corporations will find very useful for its distributed computing capabilities. It's still in its infant stages now but this definitely is a project with potential.

      --

      I have often regretted my speech, never my silence.
      -Xenocrates
    2. Re:Is it just me... by TedCheshireAcad · · Score: 5, Funny

      Quiet.

      They're enabling the empowerment and synergy of the new paradigm.

    3. Re:Is it just me... by John3 · · Score: 4, Informative
      It took a few readings of that article as well as a visit to the PlanetLab site for me to get an idea what they are trying to do. In simple terms, it looks like a network designed specifically for distributed computing projects like SETI@Home (as an example of a publicly accessible research project). Instead of relying on the Internet to link up your distributed machines, PlanetLab would be a closed high performance network that would allow the researchers to avoid the usual Internet traffic jams.

      At least that's what it sounds like to me.

      --
      "We make our world significant by the courage of our questions and by the depth of our answers." Carl Sagan
    4. Re:Is it just me... by angio · · Score: 5, Informative
      Article fluffy, planetlab not fluffy. For the moment, planetlab is primarily a research testbed. It has about 160 nodes deployed at 65 sites; these nodes are in use most of the time by a decently large group of researchers conducting internet measurement studies and research into distributed computation.

      But - that's only part of the goal. Ultimately, I believe that the goal of Planetlab is to help transition these research technologies into deployed, useful services; so the network becomes more than just a research platform, it becomes the next DNS infrastructure, or the next Akamai, or the next Napster (ok, ok, don't sue!).

      So, some of the examples the article cited are pretty illustrative. For example, the MIT Chord project is a Distributed Hash Table. DHTs are a peer-to-peer storage/retrieval system that allow completely decentralized resource sharing between cooperating hosts. And so on, and so on. The hope of the PlanetLab folk is that some of these projects will become the foundation for the next Internet architecture, or internet middleware, or whatever it is you want to call it -- the next set of critical services that change the way we use the 'net.

      But even before that, Planetlab is one heck of a useful research tool. There are several papers at this year's Sigcomm conference (big computer networking conference) that took their measurements using Planetlab. There are a number of other papers and projects in the pipeline that're using planetlab as their research testbed. The cool thing about planetlab is that it's now considerably larger than most prior testbeds, and has a lot more momentum for future growth. Full disclosure: I spend a part of my time working on planetlab, but this post is not any kind of official view, it's just my interpretation.-

    5. Re:Is it just me... by angio · · Score: 4, Informative

      Close, but not quite. Planetlab is not a closed, high performance network. Rather, it's more of an overlay testbed: The machines reside on the Internet (companies that host nodes) and on the Internet2 (research universities). That's part of what's so cool about it - the machines reside all over the world (see the map on the planetlab website - it's an accurate reflection of the location of the nodes). They have a lot of visibility into nooks and crannies on the Internet, and they're beginning to be deployed enough that there's often a planetlab node nearby, whereever in the network you are.

    6. Re:Is it just me... by John3 · · Score: 4, Insightful
      Doh...never mind. :-)

      After yet another read of the article it looks like they are just building a mock-up Internet on which to test their distributed apps. This would allow them to see how their apps will perform when linked over the Internet rather than in a closed lab 100mb network environment.

      This would help them avoid comments like "Gee, those data packets sure take a long time to get back to us" once they move their app to the real world outside the lab.

      --
      "We make our world significant by the courage of our questions and by the depth of our answers." Carl Sagan
  4. standards and flexibility by loveandpeace · · Score: 4, Insightful

    one of the things i find so interesting about PlanetLab is the way employing standards has actually increased the flexibility of the whole product. too often, standards are a primary ossifying force in technological development, especially when created after the fact; by coming up with a common platform and software package at the outset, and by having flexibility as one of the primary goals considered in development, standards will actally help ensure PlanetLab works as it was intended.

  5. Shiny! by cultobill · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I can't help but say that most CS/IT majors need this. I've seen too many people write apps (simple ones even) that relied on that ethernet connection that the dorms give, 10Mbit between machines. "Scale down? Who has less than a fast cable modem these days?"

    Now they just need to break the schedulers on the machines, to make them randomly almost-starve a process to make sure it can cope with a slow machine.

    --
    -- Bill "Houdini" Weiss
  6. Here's my Internet Emulator by jaylee7877 · · Score: 4, Funny

    #ping 127.0.0.1 #ftp 127.0.0.1 #lynx http://127.0.0.1 #nmap -O 127.0.0.1 Who needs Cable/DSL when you have connectivity to localhost, it's the fastest thing out there!

  7. Lemmie guess... by Matey-O · · Score: 4, Funny

    SOMEBODY'S been watching a little too much Matrix lately.

    --
    "Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus."
  8. Oh please... by Geekenstein · · Score: 4, Funny

    That's nothing. I just invented an internet emulator emulator. Beat that!

  9. Did someone say Internet Emulator? by wiggys · · Score: 5, Funny

    Check this out!

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    Sorry, but my karma just ran over your dogma.

  10. Internet Emulator by athakur999 · · Score: 5, Funny

    I tried out this "Internet Emulator", went the emulated Google page, and tried searching for "naked pictures of Carrie Ann Moss" and did not get a single hit.

    If this thing can't even emulate the most basic function of the Internet, I don't know how it's gonna succeed.

    --
    "People that quote themselves in their signatures bother me" - athakur999
  11. In other news by Lane.exe · · Score: 4, Funny
    Al Gore sues for IP infringment.

    What? Not funny anymore? Guess I'll go hang myself then.

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    IAALS.
  12. Internet2 misconception by finkployd · · Score: 4, Informative

    As usual, someone is confusing Internet2 with Abilene Which is Internet2's high speed network. Abilene is just a part of what Internet2 does. If you ask me (and I know you didn't), Internet2's middleware stuff is much more interesting and ground breaking than a silly high speed network. Check out Shibboleth if you want to know where the Liberty Alliance got pretty much all their ideas :)

    Finkployd