John Galt
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03-01-2003 05:41 PM ET (US)
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1. The internet is not anything like a mesh of high depth. How many computers does the computer you are reading this on get IP packets from, and how many does it pass on to others? For 99% of computers 'on the net', it's 1 and 0. Name as many ISPs as you can in 30 seconds. You're probably under 10.
2. Just because most applications can run IP packets doesn't mean it's optimal or even a good idea for them to do so. Consider e.g., GPS, garage door openers, mobile phones. Licensing or creating a full TCP/IP stack has non-zero cost.
3. Manhattan size, sq miles: 26. United States sq miles,3,794,083. Manhattan percentage of United States,
.00000000000005.
As much as you or I might want to have unrestricted access to all that spectrum (and I do), it's important not to muddy the waters with incorrect arguments if you want to be heard.
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| jleader
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03-05-2003 03:49 PM ET (US)
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Just because the edge nodes are mostly singly connected doesn't mean the Internet isn't a mesh of high depth.
My impression is that when I run a traceroute from a typical edge node to another edge node, it will be anywhere from 10 to 20 hops long, sometimes more. Often, the hop from the edge node to its connection point is where the majority of the latency lies, especially if it's a 56K modem connection.
Kwerel is saying that edge nodes need to be connected to the backbone via very few hops, because processing at each hop slows things down. I think he's forgetting about Moore's Law, which suggests that the processing nodes keep getting faster. Look at all the intelligent switching that would have been impossible 10 years ago, because we didn't have processors fast enough (and cheap enough) to make those switching decisions without excessive latency.
Cory, it sounds like the last few paragraphs are proposing a kind of homesteading. He wants to convert spectrum to property, without pissing off the people who currently have (some) rights to it. The trouble is, since they get back the money they bid, I don't see anything keeping them from bidding $googolplex. Maybe there's sales tax? It seems to me since they're converting something they had limited rights to into something they've got full property rights in, they ought to pay something for that.
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