Thought this might be worth passing on:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/2514651.stm
There is a recent book out called “Linked: The New Science of Networks” which details the potential for causing widespread Internet damage by targeting a few hubs instead of random or widespread attacks against large numbers of hosts. This simulation seems to backup the author’s concerns.
Irwin
Thought this might be worth passing on:
BBC NEWS | Technology | Risk of internet collapse rising
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/2514651.stm>
Its difficult to tell what the authors have discovered since the paper
won't be published for four months. From the press release I notice
some language which would indicate it may have the same issues other
Internet models have predicting the impact of physical disruptions.
Q: What's the difference between airline traffic and highway traffic
during a snow storm in Chicago?
traffic through Dallas. But a snowstorm in Chicago does impact air
traffic in Dallas.
Air traffic in the US is a tightly coupled system. Air traffic is
coordinated nationally, and passengers must make connections at fixed
points which are difficult to change. Its difficult to get on a different
plane heading in the general direction of your destination. Automotive
traffic is loosly coupled. Auto traffic is locally controlled and cars
may be individually re-routed towards its destination at many different
points.
Which analogy is closer to what happens to the Internet? Air traffic or
highway traffic? Or maybe Internet traffic is like Internet traffic.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6V1H-461XHCP
-1&_user=10&_coverDate=02%2F28%2F2003&_rdoc=4&_fmt=summary&_orig=brows
e&_srch=%23toc%235675%232003%23999799998%23346577!&_cdi=5675&_sort=d&_
docanchor=&wchp=dGLbVzb-lSzBA&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=
0&_userid=10&md5=07d46c9a1f4d02e61db9a1aaff89514e
Yah, the abstract indicates what most of us already know. Good coverage and redundancy options in urban areas; less so for rural areas. Why should this shock anyone? Imminent death of the 'net is *not predicted 
Eliot
Actually, I think we should all be more concerned that in most metro cities, there is always 1 major mega CO. In the CO, not only do the RBOCs have tremendous critical technology aggregated there, but almost every telcom provider also locates key technology and network there. Knocking out that facility would critically damage both voice and data in that region. It is also a critical interconnect point btw operators since they all happen to be there.
Does anyone still remember that event in Atlanta where worldcom lost power in one of their facilities after a storm knocked out power, and the generator had contaminated fuel (circa 1997). That had a major affect on communications and we are not even talking RBOC CO.
Thus spake"Irwin Lazar" <ILazar@burtongroup.com>
Thought this might be worth passing on:
BBC NEWS | Technology | Risk of internet collapse rising
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/2514651.stm>There is a recent book out called "Linked: The New Science of Networks"
which details the potential for causing widespread Internet damage by
targeting a few hubs instead of random or widespread attacks against large
numbers of hosts. This simulation seems to backup the author's concerns.
How much of this research is based on marketing maps on the ISPs' web sites,
versus actual maps of the networks in question? Most "tier 1" ISPs won't
even let their vendors see the latter.
S
last year we *measured* isp maps as part of a research project called
rocketfuel and found that the marketing maps can differ significantly from
the real ones quite a bit because of lack-of-detail, outdated-ness, or
optimistic-projections. a paper describing the methodology and the maps
themselves can be found off:
http://www.cs.washington.edu/research/networking/rocketfuel/
-- ratul
last year we *measured* isp maps as part of a research project called
rocketfuel and found that the marketing maps can differ significantly from
the real ones quite a bit because of lack-of-detail, outdated-ness, or
optimistic-projections. a paper describing the methodology and the maps
themselves can be found off:
UW CSE | Systems Research | Rocketfuel
and, aside from reversing the meaning of a comment you attribute
to me, i heartily recommend this paper.
randy