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Intel says Internet needs to change
Nurgled writes "At a recent Intel conference, CTO Pat Gelsinger said that something needs to be done to avoid the Internet buckling under the strain of new technologies and millions of new users. The BBC reports that Intel is attempting to layer a 'new Internet' over the existing network which can detect and counteract things like worm outbreaks and route traffic more intelligently during low and high traffic periods. Intel's prototype, PlanetLab, has 441 nodes but claims to be an open platform with documentation available on the site. What's in it for Intel, though?"
http://stephan.sugarmotor.org
Not really. I think what they're actually proposing is a separate "management layer" overlaid on the internet, either on separate fibres or VLANs or .... which would operate rather higher standards for connection (see the rules for connecting University MANs to JANET for an example) than the internet and provide secure and reliable exchange of management information (traffic patterns, for instance) to allow things like prompt detection of worms.
Makes sense as a way to go from where we are, even if it wouldn't necessarily be what you'd design from here.
Internet 2 is quite different -- it's a high-capacity backbone combined with a testbed for some new protocols.
The Coral Webcache of which there was a recent slashdot story http://it.slashdot.org.nyud.net:8090/article.pl?si d=04/08/28/2330252&tid=95&tid=218
runs on Planetlab.
You're on the right thread.
The internet as we know it is a collaboration. This entire discussion about Intel owning this planetlab by posters above is kinda funny, shows that they don't read fully, when the links are provided, or even do research before posting.
PlanetLab is also a collaboration, not just Intel, but also includes acadamics and other corporations such as google and hp. Look at the consortium link to see who is involved at http://www.planet-lab.org/
Also, be thankful that corporations and academics have banded together to keep things advancing. None of you would not be connected currently if it wasn't for Intel! Remeber DIX? Probably not.... thank DIX for ethernet people. Who is DIX? Digital, Intel and Xerox. They created the first ethernet standard which became the basis for 802.3 in 1980.
No, I'm not an Intel employee... not even employed in tech. Just sick of people not thinking before they post.
None of you guys seem to know what it is, so I'll spread what I know as a 4th-year CSc student taking a course that involves PlanetLab in the first project.
PlanetLab is like Akamai. Each "node" is a server somewhere on the web. You can write a program and, if PlanetLab approves it, you can submit it to be run on some nodes. The set of nodes you get access to is called a "slice", and each of your sandboxes on a node is called a "sliver". I said it's like Akamai, in that it's distributed and when you run your program you'll be able to load-balance for shortest latency, etc.
IPv6 is an orthoganal issue, because PlanetLab is just an application-layer thing. Right now we're writing a toy program that does a traceroute from each sliver to a target ip, and that's pretty much the same whether it's IPv4 or IPv6 afaik. Intel and my prof keep hyping it like it's totally new, but bring up Akamai and they admit it's been done before.
PlanetLab is not "Intel's prototype". Intel did not start the project,
and has never been in control of it. PlanetLab is primarily an
academic project that receives funding from a number of corporations,
including HP, Google, AT&T, France Telecom, and Intel.
The steering committee consists of faculty members from four
universities along with one representative from HP and one from Intel.
The research staff is composed mainly of people from Princeton along
with at least one from Berkeley.
Nothing stops his ISP from sending him packets destined for his 192.168.0.0/16 network. One would expect that whatever device he uses for the NAT would also act as a firewall, discarding such packets.
:)
The only thing that stops _me_ from sending him such packets is routing controls at his ISP (well, probably mine, and whatever routers lie between me and him).
The point is that NAT != firewall. Nothing prevents you from dropping unwanted packets with IPv6, or even IPv4 without NAT. And yet, we have lots of clueless people thinking that NAT black boxes _are_ firewalls, rather than that they can act as a firewall.
When you only have a hammer...