Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Vint Cerf Says No To IPv7, Yes To InterPlanetary Web

Posted by Soulskill on from the free-watson-from-the-bonds-of-earth dept.

jbrodkin writes "IPv6 is here, but what's up with IPv7? Nothing, says Vint Cerf. While one day there may be another new Internet Protocol, work is not happening on it now. 'At the moment there doesn't seem to be any incentive for inventing yet another one,' he said in an interview. However, he contends that 2011 will be a Big Year for his pet project, the extraterrestrial 'InterPlanetary Internet.' The 'Bundle' network protocols will be tested in space and standardized to 'make them available to all the space-faring countries.' As they are used with more spacecraft, 'we can literally grow an interplanetary network that can support both man and robotic exploration.'"

6 of 108 comments (clear)

  1. Back to Usenet? by CRCulver · · Score: 5, Interesting

    In his novel A Fire Upon the Deep, Vernor Vinge's vision of a galactic internet was basically Usenet newsgroups writ large. Once the web took off, he got a lot of flak for that seemingly outdated vision, but perhaps he's right. As easy as real-time communication is nowadays to people around the globe, once the internet moves into space, the incredible latency of long-distance communications could return us to a series of groups and threads that one logs into periodically, downloads en masse, and reads locally.

    1. Re:Back to Usenet? by 0123456 · · Score: 4, Funny

      As easy as real-time communication is nowadays to people around the globe, once the internet moves into space, the incredible latency of long-distance communications could return us to a series of groups and threads that one logs into periodically, downloads en masse, and reads locally.

      Of course given the time delays between solar systems, you could start a flame war that your great-great-grandchildren would have to finish.

  2. Re:IPv7? Good lord, why ever.. by alexhs · · Score: 4, Funny

    Why go with IPv64 when IPv9 is already perfectly suitable for the task ?

    --
    I have discovered a truly marvelous proof of killer sig, which this margin is too narrow to contain.
  3. Re:IPv7? Good lord, why ever.. by 0123456 · · Score: 5, Funny

    How about networking multiple worlds? What about when we learn to colonize Mars, and other solar systems?

    IPV6 has plenty enough IP addresses for a single galaxy. We might need to rethink it once we have colonised another galaxy, but the million-year ping times would be a bit annoying anyway.

  4. Re:IPv7? Good lord, why ever.. by MobileTatsu-NJG · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...but the million-year ping times would be a bit annoying anyway.

    Pfft. You know, as an AOL subscriber, it's not very often I get to call somebody else a weenie.

    --

    "I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)

  5. Re:IPv7? Good lord, why ever.. by ls671 · · Score: 4, Informative

    You can express IPv6 adresses with quad-dotted notation if you wish, going way over the 255 limit. The truth is that it is the underlying number of bytes in an IP packet header that matters.

    IPv6 addresses range is 0.0.0.0 to 4294967295.4294967295.4294967295.4294967295

    2^128 or 3.4×10^38 addresses.

    --
    Everything I write is lies, read between the lines.