Myths of the Internet: I
• The Internet is an Engine of Innovation.
– The Internet has in a real sense been stagnant since the late-70s
– Living on Moore’s Law and Band-aids
• Lots of Innovation on top of the Internet, but even that has begun to wane.
• The Internet has decentralized administration. No one owns the Internet.
– Actually, Same as the global PSTN, just no sexy name.
• The IETF is a Grass-Roots Democracy.
– Actually, It most closely Resembles the Communist Party.
– IETF meeting is Party Congress; IESG is Politburo
• The Internet is based on the ARPANET
– Actually, It is based on the French network CYCLADES
Myths of the Internet: II
• The Internet is not an internet, but a catenet.
– Ceased to be an Internet on January 1, 1983.
• The Internet is a dumb network.
– Actually, it keeps maximal state in the network, not minimal.
• The Internet has decentralized routing.
– Actually, most ISPs routes are statically allocated.
• IP is the Internet Protocol.
– That is what the letters stand for but it is really a subnet protocol.
• IP addresses name the host.
– No, they name the interface to the host.
• TCP isn’t perfect, but it is good enough.
– Every design decision is not just wrong but makes something else worse.
– One thing it got right was destroyed creating IP.
John Day, "Networking is IPC and only IPC, or how to clean a slate",
http://csr.bu.edu/rina/KoreaHowtoCleanASlate100219.pdf