From LEDBAT and FireChat to the new distributed network

Presented by Stanislav Shalunov

Tuesday, November 15, 2016 (Date Updated - originally scheduled for November 1)
4:00 p.m.
ICSI Lecture Hall

Abstract:

The technical and the economic frameworks of the Internet are based on the tacit assumption of wired connections. Wires are expensive, take a long time to install, and need periodic maintenance. Because they are expensive, a house only has one; because they take a long time to install, we stay with one connection for a long time; and because of the need for maintenance, we are bound to use an Internet service provider in the business of maintaining them. Most Internet use today, by time, is mobile, and the fraction keeps increasing. The assumptions are no longer true, yet the network still works the same: you get an IP from your provider, etc. How would a network look if we designed it around multiple unreliable and mostly lateral connections of the kind possible today? What economic and political implications will the shift have?
 
Bio:
 

Stanislav Shalunov created LEDBAT, the protocol used by Apple for Software Updates in iOS and Mac OS X, by Microsoft in Windows10, by BitTorrent for all transfers, and many other companies, accounting for 15–20% of total Internet traffic. In 2011, Stas cofounded Open Garden, a startup in San Francisco that has received $13M in VC funding and made FireChat, the revolutionary mobile messenger app that works even without the Internet by connecting nearby phones directly to one another, building a network, and passing secure messages. FireChat has been downloaded by over 6 million people and has been used widely in protests in Hong Kong, Russia, and elsewhere, as well as at Burning Man and during natural disasters. Stas is working on a fully distributed way to disseminate content.