IDF, Fall 2004: Intel CTO sees New Net on the horizon

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By Alun Williams, San Francisco

Posted on 9 Sep 2004 at 19:21

Computational services overlay. Not an immediately inspiring phrase, but one that underpins Intel's latest view of how the Internet could develop.

In the closing keynote of IDF, Fall 2004, Intel's CTO Pat Gelsinger presented the possibilities for a 'New Net' and the role such 'overlays' could play.

Stressing the need for evolution rather than revolution - that existing protocols and infrastructure had to be built upon and adapted to, rather than be replaced - he invited on stage Vint Cerf, a pioneer of TCP/IP back in the early Seventies.

'The same paradigm that lead to the creation of the Internet should be re-applied - at a higher, more abstract and capable layer,' said Gelsinger.

'We can't rip out existing networks,' he went on, 'we have to build the next layers for the next generation Internet.'

While citing statistics such as 20 per cent of US companies already being dependent on the Internet, he also listed the familiar threats and shortcomings of the existing Internet - ever growing bandwidth requirements, ever greater number of users and the need for improved reliability and security.

His rather modest proposal was for a new type of Internet node - one powered by Intel processor power, of course - that can more intelligently manage the constraints of globally network infrastructure. A new breed of router, if you will, that provides increased routing, computational and storage capabilities.

'These new smart services could allow the Internet to detect and warn of worm attacks on its own, dynamically re-route network traffic to avoid delays and improve video web casting,' said Gelsinger. 'They could also be used to make accessibility easier for users in regions of the world where power and connectivity are unreliable at best.'

In particular, Gelsinger highlighted the work of the PlanetLab Consortium, which is described as providing an 'overlying network of computational services and a test bed for new Internet technologies'. He quoted two examples of the role PlanetLab nodes could play, providing security and proxy services.

In the first, PlanetLab researchers considered how globally monitoring security attacks could lead to the identification of the 'top 10' IP address sources. He stated that dynamically updating firewalls to block just these ten addresses could reduce the impact of attacks such as Code Red by 60 per cent.

A second example considered how the dynamic addition of PlanetLab Nodes could improve the distribution of media streams, dynamically sharing the load as they join the network.

Gelsinger announced that Intel, along with HP, was now looking to commercialise such services.

Looking much further afield, Gelsinger also considered communications across the known universe. 'A planetary-scale overlay of computational services would open the Internet up to a new era of innovation while complementing other Internet initiatives,' he said. 'It would provide a platform on which Web services can run and a way to connect grid computing sites and utility data centers. It sits above the new physical infrastructure supplied by Internet 2 and above the networking layer where IPv6 functions, adding a new stratum of higher-level functionality to the Internet.'

Members of PlanetLab already include AT&T Labs, HP, NEC Labs, Cambridge University, France Telecom, Princeton University, and UC Berkeley, as well as the Internet 2 organisation.

Gelsinger repeatedly stressed that the new 'overlays' would supplement existing elements of infrastructure, and acknowledged the initiatives of other companies. He maintained, however, that Intel's role was complementary. Cisco, for example, talks of putting intelligence into the network - with IPSec in routers, and better end-to-end comms management - but he maintained this still applied at the protocol layer of TCP/IP. Likewise, the 'Adaptive Enterprise' from HP and Autonomic computing from IBM emphasise the adaptive capabilities of servers, but these would co-exist and work with PlanetLab nodes.