I want a network that scales to trillions (or more) of top-level nodes (rather than the ~2 million supported by IP and BGP.) I want everyone to be able to host a router.
I'd go source-routed isochronous streams, rather than address-routed asynchronous packets.
I haven't updated my blog in a few years, but I'm still working on building the above when I have the time. (IsoGrid.org)
I'm not much of a football fan, but I would really love it if the Seahawks were owned by a charity. It would make rooting for the home team much more meaningful!
You say it's easy to imagine bad scenarios. Then state them, with sources.
I've read the exact opposite: That it's hard to find any _real_ risks for eliminating human-biting mosquitoes. I define real as killing near 3k children a day.
I agree with you, I would also rather be reading about a stable and popular implementation of a scalable mesh network. However, there is no such thing. TCP/IP is the closest I've seen, but I think we can do better.
Hi, I'm the main developer behind the IsoGrid Protocol. Let me know if you have any questions!
I'm looking for folks who might be interested in helping out. I was raised under Windows, but I want to use free (as in freedom) software, so integration has been a bit slow going as I learn how to use Linux.
I assert that TCP/IP is actually the cause of "[lack of] physical diversity of connection in any one location".
A second (or third) ISP isn't going to suddenly show up at my house because it doesn't make economic sense. In the same way that two railroad lines don't get built between the same two cities.
A real scalable mesh protocol could change the economic calculation.
Nothing has changed technically. TCP/IP has consistently caused the centralization of power. The 90's Geeks didn't build the protocol, DARPA did (decades prior).
We wanted anyone to be be able to be a first-class citizen of the Net. But we ended up beholden to our Monopoly ISPs. TCP/IP only gives first-class status to ISPs, not to us. BGP doesn't scale if we all tried to have our own first-class routers.
Yes, things are getting better in all sorts of industries; a similar boom occurred with the wide-scale deployment of the 19th century Railroads. But things got better still with the deployment of automobile roads.
I propose we do the same with a globally scalable mesh network.
TCP/IP centralizes. Why am I stuck with one ISP? Scalable Mesh is the solution. I just GPL'd my project I'm working to build: https://GitHub.com/IsoGrid/IsoSwitch
My wife and I have been working on this for a few years. It's still in the early stages (we haven't built any HW), but we at least have a HW architecture plan.
I hadn't seen SCION, but just read through the FAQ and skimmed some of the Apr 2016 whitepaper. It doesn't appear to address centralization. For example from their literature: "SCION only assumes that a few top-tier ISPs in the isolation domain are trusted..."
Sounds like it's trying to solve many problems, but centralization isn't one of them.
I wish them well, it's good to have lots of people working on this from all angles.
Interesting that you describe TCP/IP as a decentralized protocol. I have the opposite opinion: That TCP/IP is the #1 forcing function for centralization in the world right now.
IP allows a maximum of 255 hops for any packet. This inherently restricts the topology of the Internet: As it stands, it can never be a world-wide decentralized mesh. Instead, you end up with large hubs and choke-points.
The IP addressing scheme also makes it very difficult to have a mesh: IP addresses are assigned hierarchically.
The name "Inter-Net" describes the problem directly: The Internet isn't a global network that just anyone can contribute or connect to; instead, the Internet is just a protocol for inter-connecting the world's centrally owned and operated networks.
With the IP Internet forced topology, Economies-of-Scale make massive centralized services cheaper than distributed services (even if similarly massive).
The obvious result: Comcast is your only ISP at home.
Disclosure: I've been working in my spare time for years on a solution, and I think an isochronous source-routed stream-based protocol is the only solution. I've got a proposed spec at IsoGrid.org
I noticed you asked the same question 4 months ago when I posted a previous update :-)
I am happy to report that I do have some code nearly ready to share. Though it's still of the prototype/experiment variety (not even remotely production ready). I'll send it out in the next few weeks. Without help, it will still be many months until I have a full stack prototype.
I've not solicited donations, nor have any been offered. I'll incorporate when I think doing so is worth my time. In the meantime, I'd rather spend my free time coding. Would you rather I spend my time on paperwork or coding?
If the 'Foundation' thing turns you off, would you suggest I change it? And if so, to what? But now that you mention it, I should probably at least register the trademark, what do you think?
I'd go source-routed isochronous streams, rather than address-routed asynchronous packets.
I haven't updated my blog in a few years, but I'm still working on building the above when I have the time. (IsoGrid.org)