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：将互联网延迟降低到接近极限物理约束，即自由空间中的光速。实现“光速互联网”的愿景可以为当今的应用带来重大价值；例如，即使从Web事务中减少几百毫秒，也可能为Web提供商带来数百万美元的收入，或者显著影响紧急情况或防御响应。人类的视觉系统无法正确排序间隔小于30毫秒的视觉事件；因此，在30毫秒内通过互联网收到的响应将实现“即时响应”的幻觉，从而有可能充分发挥某些应用的潜力，例如，远程沉浸，迄今为止仅限于实验室。对于某些应用程序，例如大型多人在线游戏（或任何在线交互式社区），减少Internet的延迟将推动应用程序达到临界数量的用户。一个光速的互联网也有望刺激新的和创造性应用的发展。本提案旨在通过确定导致延迟的因素、受益最大的应用程序以及开发实现它的体系结构、协议和方法，开发实现光速互联网的剧本。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)设计一个光速互联网，(3)探索减少延迟的“端点不可知”机制，以及(4)确定如何操作、维护和利用带宽受限的低延迟网络。该项目将在候选应用的背景下调查这些问题，包括电子商务、游戏、虚拟和增强现实。提出的工作包括针对广域网基础设施的新算法和设计，以及处理跨两个基础设施的应用流量动态划分的新协议和网络管理。该项目将探索如何利用低延迟网络技术，即微波和毫米波无线电，这些技术迄今为止主要用于金融行业的长距离点对点链路；具体来说，就是如何将它们整合到整个互联网中。这项工作将与连接纽约和芝加哥金融市场的超低延迟网络运营商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制造商Exablaze合作进行。这将为cSpeed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。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值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.