by
Mark Ollig
It began as an experimental network, and
evolved into “the network of networks.”
Like the invention of the telephone and
the original telecommunications network, the Internet and the devices connected
to it enhance how we communicate, manage our personal lives, and conduct our
business.
The Internet, for most of the Generation
Y, or Millennials who grew up using it, has become part of their daily life.
Today, we are witnessing the
architecture of the Internet being sewn throughout the very fabric of our
society.
It’s analogous to the clothing we put on
each morning; we have become used to wearing our “digital fabric” to connect
with the online social media and applications we routinely use each day.
The Internet’s “Web” is spun around this
planet, and high above it. Ultimately, yours truly believes it will reach out
to Mars, and beyond.
During the last few years, many of us
have been transferring our personal and business data file information onto
online storage mediums.
The data files we previously kept on our
own computers and storage devices are now residing in the cloud; those
mysterious storage servers located within the Internet’s infrastructure.
How comfortable are we with having our
online social activities, much of our communications, personal information, and
work data, being managed and stored within the Internet?
We are told by websites our information
is secure and protected “We have your data encrypted and backed up,” they say
us.
Nevertheless, our concern is justified.
How many Internet website data breaches
have we heard about lately?
These data breaches often reveal
customer account information being compromised.
Internet sites can be vulnerable to
having their security defeated, and its information acquired.
I recall the old adage, “There’s no
system foolproof enough.”
The only way to truly keep data safe is
to store it on a device or storage medium not connected to the Internet, which
is what we were doing back in the 1980s and ‘90s.
Of course, it’s a different world today
than it was then.
Many of us, myself included, have become
overly trusting when uploading photos, videos, text, and other information
files onto what we believe are secured social media, data storage, e-mail
servers, and other Internet sites.
Think of our online financial
transactions; we routinely trust a website using the “https” seen in the web
address bar, as being securely encrypted. It’s a visual assurance the
information we enter won’t be seen by others.
Fear not, dear readers, for we can take
comfort in knowing there are highly-skilled Information Technology (IT)
programmers managing the cloud portions of the Internet’s infrastructure.
They are safeguarding the gateways to
where our information is stored, by using firewalls, algorithms, and data
encryption.
It should be known, for the most part,
that our data is well-protected using today’s current technology.
Alright, yours truly is finished with
his ranting, and is now stepping off his soapbox – for the moment.
The National Science Foundation (NSF) is
an independent federal agency created by Congress in 1950, to “promote the
progress of science.”
Recently, the NSF made available $15
million in awards to three institutions for specific Internet project research.
These institutions will begin to
research and submit proposals for new designs to enhance the technical
architectural infrastructure of the future Internet.
These new Internet project designs
include planning, developing, testing, and deploying future Internet
architectures.
The objective of this year’s award is to
test new designs via a pilot program, with the cooperation of academic
institutions, non-profit organizations, industrial partners, and cities.
The NSF’s website said these projects
will “explore novel network architectures and networking concepts.”
The three projects will be led by
researchers at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, the University of
California in Los Angeles, and Rutgers University in New Jersey.
The NSF also listed several other
universities which will be partnering with each of the three institutions
leading the research efforts.
I remain optimistic about the future of
the Internet.
As the Internet grows and develops into
“The Internet of Things,” it needs to become not only more efficient, but
increasingly user-friendly, adaptable, reliable, manageable, and, of course,
secure.
I look to see a future Internet using an
enhanced transmission control protocol “intelligent” software language, and
much less physical internal hardware.
The Internet architecture of the future
will become accustomed to recognizing, communicating with, and processing
information from the billions (if not trillions) of smart devices, electronic
sensors, and other yet-to-be-invented gadgets.
As our society and the world grows and
evolves so must the Internet.
People researching and designing new
Internet-related technologies; governments committed to maintaining fair and
equal laws and policies regarding its use, keeps the Internet’s progressive
evolution continuing.
The NSF website is located at
http://www.nsf.gov.
The Future Internet Architecture project
website is http://www.nets-fia.net.
A diagram of what a future Internet
architecture could look like can be seen on my Photobucket page
http://tinyurl.com/bits-nsf1.
