Networking is IPC and Only IPC

John Day
Adjunct Professor, Computer Science Dept., WPI

Friday, 27 January 2006
11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
Fuller Labs 320

It is interesting how sometimes a subject you think you know well reveals new insights. Taking our example from Lakatos' Proofs and Refutations, you are invited on a little exercise into a subject we all know: Interprocess Communication in a single Operating System. Starting here, we will then consider what happens when with each step as we add new requirements to two computers, two more than one instance of IPC, to N computers and finally N computers on the cheap. We will consider how each step invalidates some assumptions or requires additional mechanisms. It is interesting to note when certain things appear. But what is really remarkable is the insights it brings to our concepts of network architecture. Insights that affect our concept of layers and what goes in them with implications for all aspects of networking including security, mobility, routing, etc.

John Day has been involved in research and development of computer networks since 1970 when he was involved in the design and implementation of transport and upper layer protocols for the ARPANet/Internet. Mr. Day has worked on protocols for everything from the data link layer to the application layer. Mr. Day has made fundamental contributions to research on distributed data bases, and also did work on the early development of supercomputers and developing 3 operating systems. Mr. Day was in charge of the development of the OSI Reference Model, Naming and Addressing and upper layer architecture and was a member of the Internet Research Task Force’s Name Space Research Group. He has been a major contributor to the development of Network Management Architecture, working in the area since 1984 defining the fundamental architecture currently prevalent and designing high performance implementations, and fielded a network management system in the mid-80’s that was 10 years ahead of comparable systems. Recently Mr. Day has been turning his attention to radically new network architectures. Mr. Day earned a MS and BS Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois.

Host: Michael Gennert

Refreshments will be served.