I similar technology has been discussed before, and I believe it is still a viable option: RFCs 1149 and 2549, Avian Carriers. While avian carriers do present problems, (flapping, unpredictable delay, queuing issues, and buggy implementations (specifically lice and mites)), I believe they are a better option than IP via Balloon. Balloons offer higher bandwidth (practically any payload size can be accommodated with a larger envelope), but the connection is much slower and less predictable than avian carrier. Balloon carrier retransmits are very expensive and the TTL is affected by the cost of propane and the general wind direction.
As an alternative, perhaps we should consider IP via dirigible. A properly sized airship loaded with a high speed DVD-rw library comprising (tens of ) thousands of discs providing a very high bandwidth, high latency, low loss (if helium is used instead of hydrogen) carrier might be an option.
-e
I similar technology has been discussed before, and I believe it is still a
viable option: RFCs 1149 and 2549, Avian Carriers. While avian carriers do
present problems, (flapping, unpredictable delay, queuing issues, and buggy
implementations (specifically lice and mites)), I believe they are a better
option than IP via Balloon. Balloons offer higher bandwidth (practically any
payload size can be accommodated with a larger envelope), but the connection
is much slower and less predictable than avian carrier. Balloon carrier
retransmits are very expensive and the TTL is affected by the cost of propane
and the general wind direction.
Interesting, altho avian carriers is in the RFCs and has actually been used,
balloons have not, perhaps you should do an experiment to compare them ;p
As an alternative, perhaps we should consider IP via dirigible. A properly
sized airship loaded with a high speed DVD-rw library comprising (tens of )
thousands of discs providing a very high bandwidth, high latency, low loss (if
helium is used instead of hydrogen) carrier might be an option.
Actually I think that was a spin-off of the thread not so long ago where they
broke the data speed record. Carrying such a quantity of DVDs (or similar media)
on a plane such as concorde does produce higher bandwidths than current "fat
pipes"
Steve