Peter Salus - Matrix.net

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Disruptions of the Internet

Apr 04, 2001

PDF

Abstract

The Internet is an immense, packet-switched reticulum. Last November it was comprised of 100 million hosts (having begun with 4 in 1969 and 213 in August 1981). Nonetheless, natural events (like earthquakes and hurricanes), traffic jams (as in the release of the Starr Report), and human stupidity (cable cuts and denial of service attacks) can slow various parts of the network.

Using graphs of latency and packet loss, this paper will illustrate such events and the differences among them.

About the Speaker

Peter H. Salus, Chief Knowledge Officer of Matrix.Net, has written or edited over a dozen books, including A Quarter Century of UNIX, Casting the Net, the four-volume Handbook of Programming Languages, and the Big Book of IPv6 Addressing RFCs.

He has extensive experience in large organizations, having been Executive Director of the USENIX Association and the Sun User Group and Vice President of the Free Software Foundation, following 20 years\' experience in academia and a stint at IBM\'s T.J. Watson Research Center.

He is a frequent speaker at European and North American computer events, including the Atlanta Linux Showcase, USENIX, CompCon, Comdex, UniForum Canada, the UKUUG, the NLUUG, the Open Technology Association (Brussels), OpenForum (Moscow), and several other European conferences.

He has appeared on the BBC, the Discovery Channel, PBS, PCTV, and the Dr. Dobbs webcast as computing and networking historian.

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