In a typical conference, people start to disappear after 3 p.m. It was quite different at ConnectivityWeek this week. At 5 p.m. (just before a reception with cocktails and food), Vint Cerf, Father of the Internet, gave a keynote speech. A pretty good-sized room, called Theater, was packed with people to hear what he had to say.

Vint started with the history of the Internet and said that in spite of popular belief (to survive nuclear attacks), the Internet’s initial objective was to share computing resources. There were only four nodes then.

He then described how the Internet should change to accommodate the new situation when every object has an identity and can communicate with any other object. You can easily guess what the new requirements will be like: large IP address space (32 bits for IPv4 vs. 128 bits for IPv6), and authentication/encryption of each packet for secrecy and authentication. Another point that struck me was that adaptability will be important because those objects may move around to exploit many different communication venues. You cannot assume only a handful of ways for communication. He said that the most difficult problem will be error caused by misconfiguration, which is hard to detect. A good way to detect misconfiguration early would be a good technology to develop.

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		Energy Impact of Increased Server Inlet Temperature
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I do not summarize what he said here, but you may want to see his entire presentation. It is worth 60 minutes of your time.

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When Vint Cerf Speaks, Everyone Listens

Tags: Smart Grid