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Pigeon Protocol Finds a Practical Purpose

Posted by timothy on from the fly-away-little-one dept.

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."

5 of 113 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Not really TCPIPoP by antifoidulus · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Unless the pigeon comes back it's certainly not TCP, more like Pigeon UDP.

    --
    Monstar L
  2. Pretty cool by The_Duck271 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I don't know why everyone needs to find something to whine about in this article; it's a pretty cool story. An amusing blend of modern and ancient technology to solve an interesting problem.

  3. Re:Packet loss by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    No can do. This is a pure UDP implementation, feel the speed!

  4. Re:Not really TCPIPoP by ari_j · · Score: 2, Insightful
    Wow. Did you even read the entire first sentence or did you stop at the first link?

    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.

    Right there, at the end of that first sentence, it explains that there have been attempts to transmit information via pigeon. Not by IP over Avian Carriers. Nowhere in the summary does it actually claim that this is an implementation of RFC 1149. Try again, smartypants.

  5. Re:Not the first time by TBoon · · Score: 2, Insightful

    you would have to carry some device that could copy the pictures.

    You mean, like, say, a netbook?