Another Inventor Of The Internet Wants To Gag It

Another Inventor Of The Internet Wants To Gag It

Thursday, June 26, 2008 - by Gregory Sullivan
Lawrence Roberts is just another guy with the title:" Inventor of the Internet" in news articles. According to Wikipedia, he's the father of networking through data packets. And he's turned his attention to everyone's favorite data packet topic: Peer-to-Peer filesharing. He's established a company called Anagran, and says their devices can sort out which file transfers on the tubes are P2P, and -- you guessed it -- can throttle them in favor of other, more "high-priority" traffic.


At Structure 08, he laid out the problem: 5 percent of the Net's users are running P2P transfers taking up 80 percent of its capacity, which is dramatically limiting the available bandwidth available to everyone else. Roberts' company, Anagran, is able to detect which "flows" are P2P traffic, and reduce the bandwidth available to these communications when other users' systems want it. Roberts says that Anagran's technology even functions when P2P transfers are encrypted.

 
ANAGRAN's FR-1000

One of the products currently offered by ANAGRAN, the FR-1000 Intelligent Flow Manager has a feature set geared specifically toward shaping network traffic.  A sampling form the product page is available below.

  • Instant Network Congestion Relief: Adding an FR-1000 wherever network congestion occurs eliminates congestion to instantly improve application performance and service quality.  Downstream routers perform better.
  • High Quality of Experience for Streaming Media: When loss-susceptible traffic like IPTV and VoIP overload their capacity, packet discard creates noise, jitter, and freeze-frame in all flows.  IFD selectively invokes call admission control (CAC) on specific flows only; either the lowest priority or the most recent, for sustained high quality voice and video even during periods of intense user demand.
  • Bulk Data and P2P Management: Managing flow rates by service class with BTC throttles bandwidth-hungry traffic like P2P to allow all services (including P2P!) to flourish even when network links become congested.
  • Powerful Traffic Inspection and Awareness: Real-time capture of all flow statistics enables inspection, logging, and analysis for all traffic in the network. Find out what is really happening in your network.
  • Improved Performance: Fast Flow Technology improves trunk utilization by up to 300% while adding zero incremental delay.  For the first time, bandwidth utilization is maximized without adding any latency.
  • Significant Cost Savings: Bandwidth needed to connect data/content sources to the network can be reduced by 2:1-3:1.  Compact, high-performance 1RU form factor saves space and lowers equipment costs.  Eco-friendly low power consumption (300 watts) minimizes heat dissipation and ongoing operating costs.
According to Roberts, 80 percent of Internet traffic is generated by 5 percent of users, and that 80 percent is used for P2P filesharing. I have a feeling Mr. Roberts will finally make some money off that Internet he invented if the device works, as ISPs would love to have a way to shuffle Bittorrents of Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo to the back of the queue. I also predict he will become an object of more intense detestation than anyone outside an RIAA office on the Internet he invented, if his device works and is put into general use. 

There sure are a lot of people who are referred to as "Inventor of the Internet." Of course we could tell the old joke about Al Gore inventing the Internet, but of course we know he invented weather, not the Internet.
Via: Webware | News Archive | Tags: Internet, VENTO
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Comments

By LaMpiR on Jun 26, 2008

I hope my ISP won't get its hands on this. I realy don't see the point in limiting users...

By Dave_HH on Jun 26, 2008

At first glance, the specs on this box look like traditional traffic shaping and QoS services found on many carrier class or enterprise switches but it's the specific references to P2P that are a little overt.

By Drago on Jun 27, 2008

Well if the internet as a whole got a speed upgrade in the countries where it is still very crappy compared to places like Japan, then maybe file sharing wouldnt need to be filtered. I do not see what is so bad about filtering P2P content. P2P is supposed to be like connecting a wire from your compy to the other compy in another state or country where the compy is that has what you want on it. Since the internet is packetized and like electricity the packets try to follow the path of least resistance, those file sharing packets pulling from tons of different seeders flood the internet and all the routers on the backbone as well. It is easy to see why this traffic would want to be throtled.

Till we get enough of a speed bump everywhere so that dvd's and such can be downloaded in seconds, then of course people will want to limit p2p traffic. The only other alternative is for the ISP's to turn your internet service to like your electric service or water service, and charge you on how much you use. I never want to see that, so atm throtling p2p traffic is the lesser of 2 evils.

By aktiveradio on Jun 27, 2008

Al Gore invented Global warming not weather.

By aktiveradio on Jun 27, 2008

Al Gore invented Global warming not weather.

By Dave_HH on Jun 27, 2008

akt, that was the point the author was making I think... Yes, he invented global warming, which the author felt is pretty much just swings of the weather. At least that's the connection I made...

By auto98 on Jun 27, 2008

I wonder where he got that 80% is p2p figure from - last report i saw claimed that the "TV catch up" type services (eg BBC iPlayer, comedy central site etc) were only a small amount behind p2p in usage?

By 3vi1 on Jun 27, 2008

I think he's telling some sort of half-truth regarding the encrypted traffic. Possibly their device throttles all ssl-encrypted tcp sessions between endpoints not running on the standard HTTPS ports.

Look for torrent clients to go to a udp model, which this device won't be able to tell from voip and therefore better not throttle.

For those of you that don't mind filtering of p2p, think about how much more efficient it is for the legitimate uses: updates for WoW and MGS, Joost, BBC iPlayer, LiveStation, Tribler, Linux distros, etc.

With P2p, you pull from many more places at once, but the transfer consumes the exact same bandwidth (+ a negligible setup overhead) in the end. Plus, many clients will prefer peers on their own network or with fewer hops - which in the end means the consumption of less internet resources.

The problem isn't P2P - the problem is people downloading all day long non-stop. They'll do that same thing via FTP or HTTP if P2P isn't an option.

-J

By lbrlove on Jun 27, 2008

So more technology exists to "nice" some users' processes. That is to say, users who typically have neither the ability nor the inclination to control their bandwidth usage on the system. And as is usual for technology, it can be used for good (e.g. traffic shaping for congestion control to the benefit of most) or ill (e.g. black-holing P2P at least inasmuch as the device can identify it).

There is no new thing under the sun.

By rapid1 on Jun 27, 2008

As long as they route all that extra bandwidth to me I'm cool with it... Lol I think we should just go back to the old way of doing things BBS and IRC at least they'd have to learn how to squander my bandwidth before they could do it not just go download limewire...............................

By Endersothergame on Jun 29, 2008

I realize this is likely not the answer ISP's wanna hear, but why not simply grow their architecture?  I mean seriously alot of the problems ISP's report are created by themselves as they attempt to compete with each other at no cost to themselves.  For example in neighborhoods I have lived in there is a lot of overselling on networks that can't really support what they are claiming.  So instead of fixing their mistakes they are screaming foul and crying about not having enough bandwidth available, finally pointing the finger at a convenient and likely conjured target.  Therefor are as mentioned legit p2p services out there that will also suffer, which is not cool.  Example that pops into mind is imeadiatly being skype.  A completely legit service that will have to change its complete model or be forced out of existance.

*steps into flame suit*

Now before someone decides to flame me on this, I agree that there is a rampant comunity of theives around, and maybe they need to settle down as well, but that isn't the basis of my argument right now.

By FSeven on Jun 30, 2008

People still use torrents? Usenet is where it's at.

By mazuki on Jun 30, 2008

oh great, so now little sally sue who wants to get on myspace, takes precedence over a poweruser getting latest video content from a news site, or the latest linux distro, sure there are illegal things, but for godsakes, why are they going to give precedence to other, more dangerous online activities than p2p? say child pornography, and targeting children? now this will take precedence over a shared album.

ridiculous.

By ice91785 on Jul 1, 2008

TBH the only fix to the problem is a complete overhaul of the Internet as a whole.....currently with protocols built onto protocols built onto protocols and so on its pretty much a mess already.

Just like if you have a business, you don't continuously add 4 port switch on top of 4 port switch over time to get a say 128 ports.....you scrap the old and get in with new/better/more efficient.

Its a shame the world is so reliant on the 'net as again, I believe the only fix to the problem is an overhaul.....

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