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LISA '12 Keynote: Vint Cerf's "The Internet of Things and Sensors and Actuators!"
(this post written by Ben Cotton and Greg Riedesel)
One
of the many benefits of LISA is being able to interact with the giants
in the field. Organizing committee member Patrick Cable discovered this
first hand when he had the opportunity to ask a question of Vint Cerf.
Vint Cerf's resume is long and distinguished, but he may be best known
for his invention of TCP/IP. It should come as no surprise that he
received a very warm welcome as LISA '12's keynote speaker.
Cerf
began his talk by discussing the Internet of Things. While IP-enabled
toasters and lightbulbs used to be a joke, they now exist. Over 908
million devices are visible on the Internet, representing 2.405 billion
users. The Internet has changed considerably in the 40 years since
TCP/IP was first introduced: IPv6, internationalized domain names,
generic top-level domains, mobile devices, and the "smart grid" have all
changed the digital landscape in recent years. "Things" will not be
going away, either; sensor networks provide important feedback on both
the digital and physical environment, and new uses are constantly being
developed.
Cerf
illuminated his point with a story about the wine cellar in his house. A
while ago he wired his home with smart sensors that can track
environmental conditions, which included his wine cellar. When it gets
too warm it alerts him via SMS (doing so all week in one case, when
there was a failure as he was out of town). He got the idea to see if
anyone has been in there, he has kids, and set that up. Then realized
there was no way to see if any wine left the room, he then added RIFD
tags to his bottles, creating an inventory system.
Cerf
used this anecdote to talk about several of the problems facing an
internet-of-things. With such a distributed sensor network, where do the
controllers reside? It will be different for residential and commercial
applications, and we’re still figuring out the implications.
Because
of the continued growth of the Internet, there are many challenges to
be faced. Governments and international organizations are beginning to
regulate not only the technical aspects of the Internet, but also the
content. The last time the World Conference on International
Telecommunications released its International Telecommunication
Regulations, the Internet was just a few years old and largely unknown
outside of academia; now it is pervasive.
The
internet also presents issues for the preservation of data and
information, what Cerf calls "digital vellum." Applications in the
future may not be able to read current data, assuming the data the media
is stored on can even be read. Backwards compatibility can't be
maintained forever, so there is a real concern about how we can preserve
our legacy for future generations. "If we don't do something about
this," Cerf told the audience, "people in the 22nd century will wonder
about us, but they won't know much about us."
Cerf
ended his talk by discussing a coming challenge in networking: getting
data to and from space. Interplanetary networking needs to be delay- and
interrupt-tolerant. The speed of light is too slow for TCP to work to
Mars and beyond. Proposed protocols will involve repurposing
mission-complete spacecraft as nodes in an interplanetary Internet.
These projects make Cerf feel like he's living in science fiction, but
as he reminded the audience in closing: "That's what engineering is all
about: making science fiction a reality."
(Video of the keynote is available at http://new.livestream.com/accounts/1545775/lisa12opening)