Internet is broken says original designer

Internet is broken says original designer

One of the founders of the modern day internet has said that the system as it stands is broken and needs replacing..

Lawrence (Larry) Roberts, who designed the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network, or ARPANET, has said that the current system of packet data isn't suitable for the uses to which the internet is being used currently. Rather than viewing data as packet it needs to be seen as a flow, and this will require fundamental retooling.

“The Internet is broken. I should know: I designed it,” he writes in the IEEE's Spectrum.

“Directing traffic in terms of flows rather than individual packets improves the utilization of networks. By eliminating the excessive delays and random packet losses typical of traditional routers, flow management fills communication links with more data and protects voice and video streams. And it does all that without requiring changes to the time-tested TCP/IP protocol.”

Traditional routing technologies are unsuited to modern applications like VoIP or video transmission he says because the routing protocols were never designed to handle that kind of traffic.

At present the problems are not serious because telecommunications companies have massively overprovisioned their hardware requirements and can just about handle the data flows. But Roberts estimates that this situation cannot last.

Instead he suggests viewing data flows are a contiguous unit for some applications, so that data used in video or voice communications for example is identified as such and routers carrying it drop less of those packets.

At the same time data such as peer to peer traffic can be given a lower priority, without the need for deep packet inspection that might intrude on computer user's privacy.

Roberts has formed a start-up company Anagran to market the new technology.

Source: Copyright ©v3.co.uk

See more about:  internet  |  networking
 
 
Comments: 2
twburger
16 July 2009
I'm from Melbourne. I'm smelling a fella from Sydney wearing too fancy a suit and smiling a bit too much trying to sell me a used car from Alice Springs.

Will Roberts' product also cure any and all afflictions? Substitute 'Internet' with any money or health issue (World Economic Policy, hair loss treatment) and it reads the same - "There is a problem no one else knows about but I have a solution".

It would be nice to see an opinion of a neutral expert third party in this article. For example:

"The problem is, he's wrong. His white paper describes a method of processing packets that went out the window about 10 years ago. All modern day routers process traffic based on flows now. The first packet is examined and the subsequent packets are forwarded based on the results of the first packet. There isn't anything new or revolutionary here. Most routers in the price range of his product also offer some or all of the features he's selling." - commenter anonymous.



Comment made about the PC Authority article:
Internet is broken says original designer?
One of the founders of the modern day internet has said that the system as it stands is broken and needs replacing..

What do you think? Join the discussion.
gnome
15 August 2009
@twburger, how would you like your own personal bridge? It runs between Millers Point and Milsons Point, and if that doesn't grab you, there is a nice house we can sell you - good harbour views, one owner and designed by Joern Utzon.

More seriously, your Net comments are right. We see similar tactics being used by people who want to sell a lot more of whatever they supply, such as some of the Net filter marketers who seem to have formed a conga line with the godbotherers in providing a greek chorus for Conroy's Catastrophe.
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