IP: In search of the lost Internet

[Dave Farber <dave@farber.net>]

Title: approve:ggmu  In search of the lost Internet

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From: "Bob Frankston" <BobRMFxix@Bobf.Frankston.com>
Date: Sun, 17 Mar 2002 12:10:06 -0500
To: "Dave Farber" <farber@cis.upenn.edu>
Subject: In search of the lost Internet

[Dave: I realize you don’t normally forward opinion pieces like this rather than pointers to third party pieces but this might help in framing a number of the other oft-discussed issues. At some point I do need to articulate the relationships between the Internet and other public policies in that the End-to-End principles are about a lot more than just one packet network. Though E2E itself is a risky term since it sounds too much like a Womb-to-Tomb middle-based policy.]

 

With the IETF meeting this week, it’s worth thinking about what the Internet is or, in my opinion, where it went. There is still a lot of value and excitement associated with the Internet but much of that is focused on the Web and Email rather than recognizing that these are (merely?) applications built upon a very simple Internet. But that simple Internet is missing – most participants are hidden between Firewalls and NATs. The network transports often don’t guarantee the integrity of connections and often attempt to “help” by second-guessing the content.

 

We really ran out of IP addresses years ago when we could no longer assure that everyone could get as many IP addresses as needed. Even within a home a single address must be shared among potentially hundreds (or more) devices.

 

I explain this better in http://www.satn.org/about/missinginternet.htm. In addition to redefining telecom in terms of connectivity, we must emphasize encrypted IPV6 connectivity now using the existing IPV4 backbone. Improving the backbone is just a matter of efficiency where as the availability of addresses at the edges is what gives us the ability to continue to innovate.

Bob Frankston

http://www.Frankston.com

 


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