[IP] NSF Preps New, Improved Internet -- badly over-hyped reporting djf
As one of an informal group that met with NSF prior to the release of
a two fact sheets, this has a severe case of over-hype and some
serious errors. But what the h_ll djf
NSF Preps New, Improved Internet
By Mark Baard
Story location: <http://www.wired.com/news/technology/
0,1282,68667,00.html>
02:11 PM Aug. 26, 2005 PT
The National Science Foundation is backing a major initiative that
could lead to a completely new internet architecture, with built-in
security measures and support for ubiquitous sensors and wireless
communications devices, among other things.
The Global Environment for Networking Investigations, or GENI, will
include a research grant program to fund new architectures and an
experimental facility, which has not yet been planned in detail.
The little-noticed initiative was announced Wednesday at a meeting of
the Special Interest Group on Data Communication in Philadelphia.
The GENI experimental facility will be "designed to explore new
(network) architectures at scale," according to the SIGCOMM
announcement.
GENI (pronounced "genie") will "enable the vision of pervasive
computing and bridge the gap between the physical and virtual worlds
by including mobile, wireless and sensor networks," the NSF
announcement read.
GENI came out of an idea for a "clean slate" internet, which has been
discussed by NSF Networking Technology and Systems program director
Guru Parulkar, MIT senior research scientist David Clark and other
network architects in recent years.
Clark served as chief protocol architect for the government's
internet development initiative in the 1980s. He believes that new
network designs are needed to overcome the viruses, identity theft
and other threats plaguing the internet's decades-old infrastructure.
The original internet was not designed for security from targeted
attacks, said University of California at Los Angeles professor
Leonard Kleinrock, who led the development and installation of the
internet in the late 1960s.
"Security is one of those stepsisters of our field," said Kleinrock.
"It was not built in to the original internet. We had a philosophy
and culture of trust. Everything we do now (for security) is
patchwork, which makes it much harder."
The initiative will promote network architectures that balance
"privacy and accountability and vary protections for individuals
based on "difference and local values," the announcement read.
A new internet could also be made to support the privacy choices of
individuals and communities as sensors and communications devices
become more ubiquitous, GENI organizers hope.
People already lack privacy and security on the internet, said
Princeton University professor and SIGCOMM chairwoman Jennifer
Rexford, one of the GENI organizers.
"(Security) is an incredibly important problem today," Rexford said.
"And if you don't solve that problem, you haven't solved anything."
Princeton is one of three universities that manages the PlanetLab
experimental network, which provided some of the inspiration for
GENI. Princeton professor Larry Peterson, a member of the PlanetLab
steering committee, is also working on GENI.
Too little privacy on the internet will further erode confidence in e-
commerce, said Rexford. But too much privacy could make it difficult
to detect attacks on the network. Rexford envisions a network that
could strike a balance between the two "by offering a vast spectrum
of opting-in and opting-out."
The GENI experimental facility will likely be connected to the
National LambdaRail and Internet2 experimental networks.
But GENI will be a unique facility, with experimental hardware, "new
classes of platforms and networks" and "new computing paradigms
enabled by pervasive devices," according to the announcement.
GENI will also bridge the gap between current high-speed research
networks and ordinary internet users. The program will invite large-
scale participation from individuals drawn by exciting new
applications running on the network.
[snip]
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