[p2p-research] Application_Content_Infrastructure, important development

Sun Jun 6 23:50:37 CEST 2010

the name comes either from bill st. arnaud, or from comments about it by
gorden cook ..

http://p2pfoundation.net/Application_Content_Infrastructure

On Mon, Jun 7, 2010 at 3:49 AM, Alex Rollin <alex.rollin at gmail.com> wrote:

> I don't know where the ACI name came from.  It seems to me like saying that
> there's a move to continue to distribute collective computing and storage to
> the edge is sufficient.
>
> I think it's neat and I'll run a node.
>
> A
>
>   On Sun, Jun 6, 2010 at 10:10 PM, Michel Bauwens <michelsub2004 at gmail.com
> > wrote:
>
>>   Hi sepp, I added it as a discussion item ... see
>> http://p2pfoundation.net/Application_Content_Infrastructure
>>
>> Can you also post it as a blog discussion on the 14th?
>>
>> Michel
>>
>> On Mon, Jun 7, 2010 at 1:46 AM, Sepp Hasslberger <sepp at lastrega.com>wrote:
>>
>>>  Hi Michel,
>>>
>>> here is my view on the wiki entry on Application Content Infrastructure.
>>>
>>> Where do you think this should be put to be available to those
>>> interested, and would you think that the writer of the ACI paper should be
>>> advised?
>>>
>>> Sepp
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> This is a very interesting discussion (I just re-read it) and it does
>>> touch on the question of a user-owned network controlled by peers, although
>>> it does not delve into how such a network could work. St. Arnaud talks about
>>> the growing importance of Application Content Infrastructure (ACI) on the
>>> net, and how much of the traffic that traditionally would go over the
>>> internet backbone of internet service providers is actually being routed and
>>> computed and stored in alternative ways.
>>>
>>>  *"Examples of ACIs include large distributed caching networks such as
>>> Akamai, cloud service providers such as Amazon and Azure, Application
>>> Service Providers (ASPs) like Google and Apple, Content Distribution
>>> Networks (CDNs) such as Limelight and Hulu, and social networking services
>>> like Facebook and Twitter. Many Fortune 500 companies like banks and
>>> airlines have also deployed their own ACIs as an adjunct to their own
>>> private wide area networks in order to provide secure and timely service to
>>> their customers. Most major content and application organizations have
>>> contracted with commercial ACIs or have deployed their own infrastructure.
>>> ACIs also allows the content provider to load balance demand, so that
>>> traffic in regions expressing excessive loads can be re-directed to nodes
>>> where there is spare capacity.*
>>>
>>> *The end result is that with very little fanfare the Internet has been
>>> transformed so much so over the past decade that virtually all major content
>>> and every advanced application on the Internet is now delivered over an ACI
>>> independent of the traditional carrier Internet backbones."*
>>>
>>>
>>> In effect, the document says that ISPs are following the outdated model
>>> of the phone companies but aren't really doing their job of connecting users
>>> to the greater net with sufficient bandwidth for the content, especially
>>> video, to arrive at the end user in a proper way. It goes on to make the
>>> point that ACI or Application Content Infrastructure could be expanded, and
>>> in conjunction with R&E (Regional and Educational) networks could get even
>>> closer to the end user.
>>>
>>>  *"Up to most recently the text book model of the Internet was for
>>> businesses and consumers to access the internet through a last mile provider
>>> such as telephone or cable company. Their traffic would be sent across the
>>> backbone to its destination by an Internet service provider. This model
>>> worked reasonably well in the early days of the Internet but as new
>>> multimedia content such as video and network applications evolved the
>>> current model failed to provide a satisfactory quality of experience for
>>> users in terms of responsiveness and speed. As a result a host of content,
>>> application and hosting companies invested in something for the purposes of
>>> this paper I have collectively labeled as a Application Content
>>> Infrastructure (ACI) that complemented and expanded the original Internet
>>> through the integration of computing, storage and network links."*
>>>
>>>
>>> What is left open is how the last mile is going to function. The ISPs
>>> seem to be too busy metering their pipes and even grading traffic, giving
>>> priority to certain content and degrading the stuff that is seen as being in
>>> violation of intellectual property laws and they forget that their job
>>> includes to connect everyone with a sufficiently wide band connection for
>>> content not to suffer degradation before arriving at the end user.
>>>
>>> Mobile networks are mentioned as a possible solution, but with demands
>>> escalating, they may soon be running into the same trouble as current last
>>> mile technologies.
>>>
>>> There is a mention of "customer owned networks" but with no vision of how
>>> to achieve these.
>>>
>>>
>>> I would like to make a point or two here, just for discussion.
>>>
>>> There are currently efforts to adapt WIFI technology to build mesh
>>> networks, but WIFI was conceived as a short range technology and "last mile"
>>> typically means we may be talking distances between nodes of several hundred
>>> meters. This degrades signal throughput of WIFI, even with external
>>> antennas. G3 or G4 mobile phone technology could help, but here we talk
>>> about competing providers that are not about to share networks with each
>>> other.
>>>
>>> In addition, there are fairly widespread concerns over the huge increase
>>> in electromagnetic pollution brought to our homes by both WIFI and mobile
>>> phone technologies, which are not going to go away, unless there is a change
>>> in technical specs that can assure the electrosensitive that they have a
>>> future that doesn't involve hiding out in far away places or wearing
>>> protective clothing and installing special shielding in their homes.
>>>
>>> There IS an interesting technology that does not involve pulsed
>>> microwaves as the transmission medium and that could - with some help - be
>>> made available to end users, constructing a tight weave of local
>>> connectivity that can tap into both ISPs and ACIs and their extensions and
>>> that is sufficiently fast and robust to be a candidate.
>>>
>>> ISPs could perhaps be induced to adopt it as an alternative to building
>>> out their last mile connectivity alone, which turns out to be very expensive
>>> if it is to carry broadcast quality content. Users could be the ultimate
>>> custodians of that type of network but it would imply end users and and ISPs
>>> forming some kind of alliance, out of which the end users get free local
>>> connectivity (they supply the electricity and basic maintenance) and ISPs
>>> get a functioning last mile distribution and customers for their backbone
>>> services.
>>>
>>> The vision is to take the light beams that travel through optic cables
>>> and to replace the cables by simple light-based transmission, preferably
>>> laser, between the end users. This would form a fault tolerant and fast
>>> (high data throughput) network from one rooftop to the next, which would
>>> make local connectivity free and fast. Not every end user would have to be
>>> connected to the backbone. The user-cloud could be linked by what we might
>>> call "super users" (those with need for high bandwidth or with need for
>>> exceptionally stable connection) such as large businesses, educational
>>> institutions, city hall, etc. to the optic cable backbones. Those
>>> connections that are anyway needed and already paid for would be quite
>>> sufficient to connect the user-cloud to the internet.
>>>
>>> The technology will need some development, but it has been proven to work
>>> in concept. One implementation marries ultra wide band radio technology with
>>> a laser and a single optic fiber:
>>>
>>> *"Moshe Ran, Coordinator of the EU-funded project, UROOF (Photonic
>>> components for Ultra-wideband Radio Over Optical Fiber), has a vision. He
>>> wants to see streams of high-definition video and other high-bandwidth
>>> services flowing through homes, office buildings, and even ships and planes,
>>> through a happy marriage of optical and ultra-wideband radio technologies."
>>> *
>>>
>>> *The UROOF EAT system starts with a central laser that generates an
>>> unmodulated optical signal and sends it through a single optical fibre to
>>> remote units. In its downlink mode, the central unit receives a UWB radio
>>> signal, modulates the optical carrier, and beams it to the remote units. In
>>> the uplink mode, a remote EAT modulates the optical signal and sends it back
>>> to the central station.*
>>> *
>>> *
>>>
>>> *The EAT based Access Node 2 has the potential to carry far more
>>> information than Access Node 1, but there is a catch. "With EAT you can
>>> approach 60 GHz," says Ran, "but it is expensive."*
>>>
>>> *The UROOF team is actively working to increase the bandwidth of Access
>>> Node 2 and reduce its cost.*
>>>
>>> *Ran is encouraged by the progress UROOF has made. They have shown that
>>> UWB signals can be beamed over hundreds of metres using inexpensive optical
>>> technology, with greater bandwidth and longer distances in sight.*
>>>
>>> *"As ultra-wideband technology penetrates the mass market - within the
>>> next two years - it will be possible to manufacture an access node that will
>>> meet the demand very nicely," says Ran.*
>>> ***The UROOF project received funding from ICT strand of the EU's Sixth
>>> Framework Programme for research.*
>>>
>>> Link: http://www.cellular-news.com/story/34767.php
>>>
>>> Another way of linking is to directly beam the laser from one user's
>>> device to a receiving sensor of another user as described in the patent
>>> application of Ajang Bahar of Toronto, Canada.
>>>
>>>  *The current options for wireless communication have changed the way
>>> people work and the way in which networks can be deployed. However, there
>>> remains unresolved problems in the setup and configuration of wireless
>>> communication links. Both known cellular and ad hoc wireless networking
>>> protocols and systems are deficient in that the ability for users to
>>> communicate without a priori knowledge of MAC addresses (represented by
>>> phone numbers, IP addresses and the like) is limited or may be compromised
>>> in a hostile environment. In contrast, provided by aspects of the present
>>> invention are devices, systems and methods for establishing ad hoc wireless
>>> communication between users that do not necessarily have MAC addresses and
>>> the like for one another. In some embodiments, a first user visually selects
>>> a second user and points a coherent light beam at an electronic device
>>> employed by the second user. Data specific to the first user is modulated on
>>> the coherent light beam, which can then be demodulated when the coherent
>>> light beam is received by the electronic device of the second user.*
>>>
>>> Link: http://www.faqs.org/patents/app/20080247345#ixzz0q61l0c8U
>>>
>>> A similar patent by Doucet and Panak can be found here:
>>>
>>>
>>> http://www.google.com/patents/about?id=RbQjAAAAEBAJ&dq=6188988&ie=ISO-8859-1
>>>
>>>
>>> There is a paper by Akella and others of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
>>> titled *Building Blocks for Mobile Free-Space-Optical Networks.*
>>>
>>> *Optical wireless, also known as free space optics (FSO), is an
>>> effective high bandwidth communication technology serving commercial
>>> point-to-point links in terrestrial last mile applications and in infrared
>>> indoor LANs. FSO has several attractive characteristics such as (i) dense
>>> spacial reuse, (ii) low power usage per transmitted bit, (iii) license-free
>>> band of operation, and (iv) relatively high bandwidth. Despite these
>>> features it has not been considered as a communication environment for
>>> general-purpose metropolitan area networks or multi-hop ad-hoc networks,
>>> which are currently based on radio frequency (RF) communication
>>> technologies...*
>>>
>>>
>>> The US military has analyzed Free Space Optics as a transmission
>>> technology and has produced and published a White Paper:
>>>
>>> http://www.docstoc.com/docs/25017951/Analysis-of-FSO
>>>
>>> My point is that the technology of optical transmission has been explored
>>> and is technically feasible for last mile applications. Since users can be
>>> connected to more than one peer, the network becomes fault tolerant.
>>> Increasing proximity to a super-user, a node connected with the backbone,
>>> will make for increasing reliability of the network.
>>>
>>> Now if telcos and ISPs could be induced to embrace that technology, a
>>> simple, cheap implementation could be developed that could easilty be given
>>> away to end users, in exchange for operation of the node. ISPs would have
>>> resolved the problem of covering the last mile, while users would be linked
>>> in to the internet at negligible or no cost and we would have a local p2p
>>> network that data can travel on without having to go through any provider.
>>> Even in a national context, data would only have to go short hops (such as
>>> from one city to another) saving backbone capacity and making the net very
>>> much more resilient.
>>>
>>>
>>> Sepp Hasslberger for the P2P Foundation
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>  On 24/mag/10, at 10:27, Michel Bauwens wrote:
>>>
>>>  Sepp, Olivier, see
>>> http://p2pfoundation.net/Application_Content_Infrastructure
>>>
>>> blog commentary and presentation would be much appreciated, see
>>> discussion part for summary of implications of this new internet
>>> infrastructure,
>>>
>>> Michel
>>>
>>> --
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>>> http://www.asianforesightinstitute.org/index.php/eng/The-AFI
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
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>>
>>
>>
>>
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