Slashdot Mirror
TCP/IP over Bongo Drums
Michael500 writes "In an attempt to show that primitive communications can still function in modern networks, a friend of mine took up a challenge from his professor to replace the lowest layer of the OSI networking model with a set of bongo drums!"
All I could get I'm afraid...
At Algoma University the mature students in the fast track accelerated second degree program are not quick to accept theory without proof. As a result, Professor George Townsend offered extra credit to anyone in his forth year Computer Networks course who could take up the challenge of implementing internet based protocols over a new form of medium - Bongo Drums.
Eight weeks later, the first public demonstration was given to the class by using a simple ping packet. With a blinding 2bps speed, the class sat patiently as the packet was received in roughly 140 seconds.
Whats the point you may ask? We aren't trying to set any speed records here (actually, we have been developing some ideas for "highspeed" bongos), but rather we're showing that the lower layers of the OSI model can be replaced with any form of media without affecting the layers above it.
Look at those bongos fly! - classmate
Due to a busy semester and a Microcoded M6800 Emulator project, work on the final phase of the project has slowed. The design plans for the actual bongo hook up have been completed, and now only a few more hours are required for total completion. The demonstrations that have been conducted have used synthesized bongo beats played through desktop speakers. Due to summer work, time has ran out and the final implementation will have to wait until september.
I have over 70 freaks, do you?
I went ahead and put up a mirror of this poor Slashdotted site. I'm not sure if I've got it all but it looks nicer than just the text people have posted. Hopefully my machine's up to the task. :-)
How To Get Humans To Mars
The following non-technical story has appeared in school magazines and many other news sources from around the world.
Modern and Centuries Old Technologies Meet at AUC
Daniel Reid, senior computer science student at Algoma University finished explaining his project to a room full of his peers. The room fell silent as everyone waited in eager anticipation of the demonstration that was about to begin. Danny sat down in front of an ordinary windows computer and typed a simple command, ping www.sony.co.jp This command sends a test message to the specified computer, namely a webserver on the other side of the planet in Japan.
Ah yes the humble ping test, used to test for connectivity between your computer and another. But this was no ordinary test. It would couple together one of the most primitive centuries old technologies known to man together with the one of the fastest fiber-optic backbones in the Internet.
It all began several months earlier when Professor George Townsend was lecturing to a group of computer science students taking his fourth year Computer Networks course. The topic of the day was the OSI networking model, which describes a layered method of combining different types of technologies together to form functional networking systems. During the lecture, Professor Townsend made the claim that the design of the model permits different types of technologies to be transparently connected together. He suddenly stopped in mid lecture, and stared off into space stroking his beard thoughtfully. After a short moment of silent thought, he suggested to the class, that in theory, this should permit us to use any technology we like to connect a computer to the Internet without compromising its ability to participate in the Internet. Furthermore, he exclaimed, his voice rising in excitement, we could use a set of bongo drums to communicate as our technology of choice!
This was a dangerous claim to make at Algoma University where a unique blend of students exist as a result of the very successful Second Degree Accelerated programs it offers in Computer Science and Information Technology. These fast-track programs allow completion of an accredited university degree for people that already have a university degree in another discipline in only one calendar year. The program attracts many mature students who often bring a great deal of real world experience with them. So, of course, it was not surprising that there were many who doubted professor Townsend's words. We demand proof, they shouted!
The next morning, Professor Townsend sent out a challenge to the students in the course offering bonus marks to the first student to volunteer to attempt to connect a standard windows PC to the internet using a system of bongo drums. Danny eagerly took up the challenge. Now, several weeks later, under the guidance and direction of Professor Townsend, Danny had a working prototype.
After typing the ping command, Danny tapped smartly on the enter key, and a hush fell upon the room as the students waited to see what would happen. There was a short pause, and then suddenly the primitive sounds of a message being beaten out on a set of bongos filled the air. Several minutes passed, and yet the class remained quiet not wanting to disturb the communication. Having passed through the bongo-link and out onto the Internet, the ping message then raced to its destination in Japan.
Sony's web server in Japan was none the wiser concerning the source of the communication, and obediently responded to the ping request. The silence was broken by another set of bongos at the opposite side of the classroom as they began relaying their response back to Danny's computer. Several more minutes passed, and the class remained attentive, spellbound by what they were witnessing. Finally, the bongos stopped, and suddenly the successful ping response appeared on the screen of Dannys computer.
The classroom filled with cheers! History had been made! For the very first time, a computer had successfully communicated over the Internet using Bongo drums!
Your hair look like poop, Bob! - Wanker.
Bridging Ethernet
s 1=socket(AF_INET,SOCK_PACKET,htons(0x0003));d (s0, &from, sizeof(struct sockaddr));
t sockaddr *)&to,sizeof(to));
The first step in the Bongo Link was to get most of the socket programming out of the way. To make things as transparent as possible, a bridge was determined to be the best way to implement the Bongo Link. For starters, two network cards were thrown in two Linux boxes for testing purposes, with a patch cable from the wall to the first Linux box, and cross cables between the others. Without having addressable boxes, data taken in from one network card was to be spit out through the other, and vise versa. C programming makes this very simple. Lets take a look at some code to make things clearer.
int s0, s1;
struct sockaddr from, to;
memset(&from, '\0', sizeof(from));
from.sa_family = AF_INET;
strcpy(from.sa_data, "eth0");
memset(&to, '\0', sizeof(to));
to.sa_family = AF_INET;
strcpy(to.sa_data, "eth1");
s0=socket(AF_INET,SOCK_PACKET,htons(0x0003));
bin
bind(s1, &to, sizeof(struct sockaddr));
We first declare two file descriptors that will address each network card in the Linux box, s0 and s1. We'll also create some sockaddr structures that we will bind to our sockets later that will hold information such as which ethernet cards they'll be associated with, and the family type. The sockaddr structures are first cleared with the memset function, and then the family type and ethernet card device are copied into them. The file descriptors are then set to point to two corresponding sockets, which are created using the same family type as the structures and a special argument number which allows the sockets to be placed in promiscuous mode (they'll look at every packet on the wire). These sockets are then bound to the corresponding sockaddr structure. As soon as the two sockets are setup, we can simple use read() and write() calls to the sockets as shown below to read packets and send packets:
read(s0,buf,count);
write(s1,buf,size,0,(struc
The buffer (buf) will be an unsigned char array (8 bits) which contain the packet that is to be sent, or the packet that has been received. Now we have all the coding required to make a bridge! All that has to be done is read everything from eth0 and write it to eth1, and read everything from eth1 and write it to eth0. Pretty easy. There's only one more catch... Since the users should not be aware of such a bridge, we don't want the Linux box to have any IP addresses associated with them (i.e. non- addressable since we want transparency) we must issue a simple unix command to remove any possibility of addressing before running the bongo link. Along with removing our addressable presence on the network, we also set the network cards themselves to promiscuous mode at the same time. We issue a ifconfig command like below:
ifconfig eth0 -arp promisc up 10.1.1.0
ifconfig eth1 -arp promisc up 10.1.1.1
We now have all the tools to make a transparent bridge as shown here:
Since we will require two linux boxes for the final implementation it's just as easy to set up:
There we go, everything's all set. With the above, you could experiment making your own personal firewalls or filters at a very low layers. In fact you could play around a bit too including re-writing packets as they're sent out - just make sure to recalculate checksums or the packet will be garbage. You could also try your skills at some sort of spoofing depending on how the local routers/bridges/switches are set up.
Your hair look like poop, Bob! - Wanker.
The text for the Home, Overview, Background, and Phase I-IV pages is here. Home Page(There are a number of pages on the site)
Dial-up has never looked so good! - classmate
At Algoma University the mature students in the fast track accelerated second degree program are not quick to accept theory without proof. As a result, Professor George Townsend offered extra credit to anyone in his forth year Computer Networks course who could take up the challenge of implementing internet based protocols over a new form of medium - Bongo Drums. Eight weeks later, the first public demonstration was given to the class by using a simple ping packet. With a blinding 2bps speed, the class sat patiently as the packet was received in roughly 140 seconds. Whats the point you may ask? We aren't trying to set any speed records here (actually, we have been developing some ideas for "highspeed" bongos), but rather we're showing that the lower layers of the OSI model can be replaced with any form of media without affecting the layers above it. Look at those bongos fly! - classmate Due to a busy semester and a Microcoded M6800 Emulator project, work on the final phase of the project has slowed. The design plans for the actual bongo hook up have been completed, and now only a few more hours are required for total completion. The demonstrations that have been conducted have used synthesized bongo beats played through desktop speakers. Due to summer work, time has ran out and the final implementation will have to wait until september. *Yes I know that isn't a bongo drum at the to Overview Page The following non-technical story has appeared in school magazines and many other news sources from around the world. Modern and Centuries Old Technologies Meet at AUC Daniel Reid, senior computer science student at Algoma University finished explaining his project to a room full of his peers. The room fell silent as everyone waited in eager anticipation of the demonstration that was about to begin. Danny sat down in front of an ordinary windows computer and typed a simple command, ping www.sony.co.jp This command sends a test message to the specified computer, namely a webserver on the other side of the planet in Japan.
Ah yes the humble ping test, used to test for connectivity between your computer and another. But this was no ordinary test. It would couple together one of the most primitive centuries old technologies known to man together with the one of the fastest fiber-optic backbones in the Internet.
It all began several months earlier when Professor George Townsend was lecturing to a group of computer science students taking his fourth year Computer Networks course. The topic of the day was the OSI networking model, which describes a layered method of combining different types of technologies together to form functional networking systems. During the lecture, Professor Townsend made the claim that the design of the model permits different types of technologies to be transparently connected together. He suddenly stopped in mid lecture, and stared off into space stroking his beard thoughtfully. After a short moment of silent thought, he suggested to the class, that in theory, this should permit us to use any technology we like to connect a computer to the Internet without compromising its ability to participate in the Internet. Furthermore, he exclaimed, his voice rising in excitement, we could use a set of bongo drums to communicate as our technology of choice!
This was a dangerous claim to make at Algoma University where a unique blend of students exist as a result of the very successful Second Degree Accelerated programs it offers in Computer Science and Information Technology. These fast-track programs allow completion of an accredited university degree for people that already have a university degree in another discipline in only one calendar year. The program attracts many mature students who often bring a great deal of real world experience with them. So, of course
"I would give my right hand to be ambidextrous."
For whatever reason, Slashdot stripped the trailing / on the link of a mirror I posted, so people aren't getting the site. Please try this link instead.
PS, for whoever modded my other link as a Troll...I wasn't trying to be mean when I said the mirror looked better than posts of the text, I just meant it had the graphics too.
How To Get Humans To Mars
I think he's living in the future (or else todays is just more apropos.) It's here.
Litigious bastards
I dont see why this is so special since we had TCP/IP over pigeons already.
/. two years ago.
5 21 8&mode=nocomment
It was covered by
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/04/30/055
Prior art eh?
Nonsense! This kind of exerimental low-bandwidth, low-reliability protocol has a long and honorable history!