Open source and its hook

Marten and Open Source Hook

I was chatting with Marten Mickos recently. The question of what makes an open source effort succeed when others just flounder came up. He suggested that having a specific hook/niche that can be easily articulated is an important factor amongst many others. In the case of MySQL, it was a database designed specifically for web usage.

In the mundane business talk, it is about having an unique value proposition.

CCN and its Open Source

CCN's open source release came out last year. So, Marten's observation got me thinking about what is CCN's hook.

According to the recent Network World article, it is about security and multimedia/content consumption.

Would be interested in your take on what CCN's unique value proposition is. I am all ears.

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Content as Network

Hero Worshiping

It is kind of rare to meet your hero in person. Rarer yet is to be able to work with your hero on a regular basis.

So, it is a pretty mind blowing for me to say that I sit only a few doors down from Van Jacobson (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_Jacobson) who is the primary contributor to TCP/IP which in term provides the foundation for internet as we know it today.

Content Centric Networking (CCN)

Van is leading the effort for content centric networking (CCN). This is a high level talk that he gave a while back that explains what he has in mind.



CCN for the rest of us

Naturally, if you are not fully conversant with the 7 layers of network protocol hierarchy, e.g. business development folks like me, too need an answer on what is CCN.

This is what I say, we are working on the next generation of internet. :-p!

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I hope to explore the roadmap and implications of CCN in periodic entries. Suffices to say, the CCN group is very busy at work right now.

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Can 802.11 cut the HD TV cords?

802.11/WiFi for HDTV

For those of us in the know, 802.11 is the de facto wireless standard for computing devices that comes with all wireless PC/laptop and is increasingly available with mobile handsets and gaming console.

So the logical question is can 802.11 become the de facto wireless standard for all electronic devices. Say, instead of wiring up my new HDTV with all the players and other devices, would something like 802.11 help cut the cords?

This is an issue that a lot of industry players are grappling with and the latest verdict, for whatever it is worth, is yes according to this analyst report "802.11n Wi-Fi Technology is the Spoiler at the Wireless HD Video Party; Will Dominate (http://in-stat.com/press.asp?ID=2513&sku=IN0904455MI)"

Reality Check

Instead of arguing over the technical details, we conducted an analysis on how 802.11n will perform in typical home scenarios. Think of it as simulations on how 802.11n will work in a perfect environment - so your performance at home will only be worse...

Assumptions

It turns out that working out the specific variable/assumptions are the most tricky part. So, this is what we came up with. We want a home environment where there are different type of wireless traffics: some web surfing, some VoIP chatter, some TV watching, and some Blu-ray video watching.

We also looked into the distances amongst all the devices because interference is a very real issue with 802.11. As things are further apart, there is less inference and vice versa.

So, here are the variables that we tried in our simulations.

Devices:

Blu-ray video
HDTV
Media center (MC) - provides Blu-ray and HD TV to, up to, two (2) TV's
Web session
VoIP call
Access Point (AP) - support the web and VoIP sessions

Distances:

Short - 3m/10ft
Medium - 10m/30ft
Long - 15m/50ft

Scenarios

Without being exhaustive, scenarios range from:

Most “forgiving”: 1 MC + 1 HDTV + 1AP + 1 VoIP + 1 Web at long distance (15m/50ft)

to
Least “forgiving”: 1 MC + 1 Blu-Ray + 1 Blu-Ray+ 1AP + 1 VoIP + 1 Web at short distance (3m/10ft)

Results

The performance threshold that we used was less than 200msec delay. If it is more than that, it becomes noticeable to human perception.

The long and short of it is that 802.11n only works within the acceptable range in the case of one HDTV far away from other devices, i.e. the most "forgiving" scenario. On top of it, all the other users such as web surfing and VoIP would have to accept significant performance hit.

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I would love to hear your experiences using 802.11 in a mixed-media environment with multiple users. Maybe I am missing something here.

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Dueling dinasaurs - the Cloud edition

Dueling Dinosaurs

A few months back while talking about setting networking technical standards, one of the networking statesmen told me Dave Clark's dueling dinosaurs story as a metaphor on timing as a critical factor. In this version, the best time to set the standard is when the core technical requirements have been worked out but the commercial interests have not yet been deeply entrenched.



In other words, if the core requirements have not yet been worked out, the standard is liable to be in poor quality which impedes its proliferation. On the other hand, when there is significantly commercial entrenchment before a given standard is set, there is every business incentive to bias the standard which will fracture the industry.

Clash of the cloud dinosaurs

Just read the economist article about how two interests groups are fighting over Cloud Computing standards. In short, one group who already have a meaningful footprint in the Cloud space are happy with what they do. The opposing group are proposing standards on interoperability that allows users to easily switch between services.

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It is a comfort to know that even in the ever changing world of technology, some things don't.

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