Traffic monitoring (Was: Reordering, not Latency)

["Wei Dai" <weidai@eskimo.com>]

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eric@remailer.net (Eric Hughes) wrote:

> If I were doing global Internet monitoring, I wouldn't be doing it
> in-band.  Too much cooperation by the vendors required; too much
> discovery.  Rather, I'd gain access to the trunks directly and do my
> own demodulation and decoding.

How would you get access to the trunks?  Aren't they mostly optic 
fibers now?  Also, since Internet traffic is growing at a geometric 
rate, the probability of anyone or any organization having the 
capacity to monitor and process ALL of Internet traffic should be 
very small and decreasing.  It would be much easier to install 
sniffers on selected local networks (e.g., those containing 
remailers or other entities you're interested in).

Wei Dai

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E-mail: Wei Dai <weidai@eskimo.com>   URL: "http://www.eskimo.com/~weidai"
=================== Exponential Increase of Complexity ===================
--> Big Bang --> atoms --> complex macromolecules --> biological evolution
--> central nervous systems --> symbolic communication --> consciousness
--> computers --> internetworking --> close-coupled automation
--> high-bandwidth brain-to-net connections --> artificial intelligence
--> distributed consciousness --> group minds --> ? ? ?