NeTS: Medium: Collaborative Research: The Internet at the Speed of Light

这个项目为网络社区和行业带来了一个巨大的挑战：将互联网延迟减少到接近极限物理限制，即自由空间中的光速。实现“光速互联网”的愿景可能会转化为对当今应用程序的重大价值；例如，从网络交易中节省几百毫秒就可能为网络提供商带来数百万美元的收入，或者对应急或国防响应产生重大影响。人类视觉系统不能正确地对间隔小于约30毫秒的视觉事件进行排序；因此，在30毫秒内通过互联网接收到的响应将实现“即时响应”的错觉，潜在地使迄今为止仅限于实验室的某些应用的全部潜力得以实现，例如远程沉浸。对于一些应用程序，如大型多人在线游戏(或任何在线互动社区)，减少互联网的延迟将推动应用程序接触到临界数量的用户。光速互联网也有望刺激新的和创造性的应用程序的开发。该提案旨在开发一份实现光速互联网的攻略，通过确定造成延迟的因素、将最大限度地受益的应用，并开发实现延迟的体系结构、协议和方法。该项目的四个主要目标是(1)确定延迟对最终用户的影响，(2)设计光速互联网，(3)探索减少延迟的“终端不可知”机制，以及(4)确定如何操作、维护和使用带宽受限的低延迟网络。该项目将在候选应用程序的背景下调查这些问题，包括电子商务、游戏以及虚拟和增强现实。拟议的工作包括广域网络基础设施的新算法和设计，以及处理两个基础设施中应用程序流量动态分区的新协议和网络管理。该项目将探讨如何利用低延迟联网技术，即微波和毫米波无线电，这些技术迄今主要用于金融行业，作为远距离点对点链路部署；具体地说，如何将它们纳入整个互联网。这项工作将与McKay Brothers、内容交付服务的主要提供商Akamai Technologies和超低延迟网络接口卡的制造商Exablaze合作进行。McKay Brothers是连接纽约和芝加哥金融市场的超低延迟网络的运营商。这将为高速网状网络的设计及其与标准互联网的交互和互操作性提供信息。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project introduces a grand challenge for the networking community and industry: reducing Internet latencies to close to the limiting physical constraint, the speed of light in free space. Achieving this vision of a 'speed-of-light Internet' could translate into significant value for today's applications; for example, shaving even a few hundred milliseconds from a Web transaction may translate into millions of dollars of revenue for a Web provider, or significantly impact emergency or defense response. The human visual system cannot correctly order visual events separated by less than about 30 millisecond; thus, a response received over the Internet within thirty milliseconds would achieve the illusion of an "instant response", potentially enabling the full potential of certain applications, e.g., tele-immersion, that have so far been limited to the laboratory. For some applications, such as massive multi-player online games, (or any online interactive community), reducing the latency of the Internet will push applications to reach a critical mass of users. A speed-of-light Internet can also be expected to spur the development of new and creative applications. This proposal aims at developing a playbook for realizing a speed-of-light Internet, by identifying the factors that contribute to latency, the applications that would benefit most, and developing an architecture, protocols and methodologies for achieving it.The four main goals of this project are to (1) determine the impact of latency on end users, (2) design a speed-of-light Internet, (3) explore "end-point agnostic" mechanisms for reducing latency, and (4) determine how to operate, maintain, and make use of a bandwidth-constrained low-latency network. The project will investigate these questions in the context of candidate applications including electronic commerce, games, and virtual and augmented reality. The proposed work includes new algorithms and design for the wide-area network infrastructure, and new protocols and network management to deal with the dynamic partitioning of application traffic across the two infrastructures. The project will explore how to leverage low-latency networking technologies, i.e., microwave and millimeter wave radios, which have thus far been deployed as point-to-point links over long distances primarily for the financial industry; specifically, how they can be incorporated into the Internet at large. The work will be carried out in collaboration with McKay Brothers, the operators of an ultra-low-latency network linking financial markets in New York and Chicago, Akamai Technologies, a major provider of content delivery services, and Exablaze, a manufacturer of the ultra-low-latency network interface cards. This will inform the design of a cSpeed mesh network, and its interaction and interoperability with the standard Internet.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.