Pigeon Protocol Finds a Practical Purpose

Selanit writes "Since David Waitzman wrote his tongue-in-cheek Standard for the Transmission of IP Datagrams on Avian Carriers, there have been occasional attempts to actually transmit information via pigeon. One group back in 2001 successfully sent a PING command. But now there's a practical use for pigeon-based communications: photographers working for the white-water rafting company Rocky Mountain Adventures send memory sticks full of digital photos via homing pigeon so the photos will be ready when the rafters finish up. The company has details on how the pigeons are trained and equipped. It may not be a full implementation of the Pigeon Protocol, but it works in narrow canyons far off the beaten path — and just as David Waitzman presciently predicted, they occasionally suffer packet loss due to hawks and ospreys."

Comments

Cache La Poudre

[stoolpigeon]

I rafted the Poudre this summer. It was a great time. The company we went with did a great job, not sure why the need to race photos back. Our photographer rode back with us, while we turned in our gear, changed clothes, etc. he set up in the office, and started showing the pictures to folks on an iMac. While we watched he burned a dvd. We had a big group so he set a price and sold us a dvd that we could all copy. It was pretty sweet. Mountain Whitewater Descents was the company we used and I'd recommend them to anyone headed that way.
 
Apparently a while back some French trappers got snowed in and hid their gun powder by the river - that's how it got its name.

Another misleading headline...*sigh*

[DNS-and-BIND]

This isn't an implementation of RFC1149. *sigh* It even says so in the summary, not even the freaking article. They're just using carrier pigeons as couriers, like they've been used for centuries.

"Since David Waitzman wrote his tongue-in-cheek Standard for the Transmission of IP Datagrams on Avian Carriers, there have been occasional attempts to actually transmit information via pigeon.
Yeah, attempts like the victory at Marathon in 490BC...

Re:Another misleading headline...*sigh*

[Jim Efaw]

More like UUCP mail over pigeon, if we're comparing it to a protocol. On the other hand, we could just call it files by carrier pigeon... uh... why are we having this conversation again? It didn't say the pigeon protocol you're all thinking of (RFC 1149) was used — just that a pigeon protocol was used. I'll just be quiet now.

Re:Not really TCPIPoP

[ari_j]

I'm not finding any claim that it is IP over Avian Carrier as prescribed by RFC 1149. It is, perhaps, misleading to call it a "pigeon protocol," but nobody claimed it was IP. It is definitely more of a protocol than a sneakernet, though, unless the pigeons are walking the whole way.

packet loss due to hawks and ospreys

[mindbrane]

Ospreys are deeply beautiful birds of prey and watching them is magic, but I've never seen an osprey take anything but fish.

Someone can't spell

[BenoitRen]

One of the story tags is "wortthless".

Everything old is new again...

[rwyoder]

...and a two-year-old article in the Denver Post is "news" to SlashDot.

Still useful.

[Sawopox]

This may be useful in a post apocalyptic world. Chances are, Internet style connectivity will be wiped out. Decentralized regional networks may still exist. Transporting high-density data using antique methods such as the pigeons can allow for FidoNet (remember that?) other BBS-style data exchange. Anything that can get the information moving again is a good thing.

I would hate to show you

[dominux]

But I will anyway
vegard@gyversalen:~$ ping -i 900 10.0.3.1
PING 10.0.3.1 (10.0.3.1): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 10.0.3.1: icmp_seq=0 ttl=255 time=6165731.1 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.3.1: icmp_seq=4 ttl=255 time=3211900.8 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.3.1: icmp_seq=2 ttl=255 time=5124922.8 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.3.1: icmp_seq=1 ttl=255 time=6388671.9 ms

from http://www.blug.linux.no/rfc1149/pinglogg.txt