Taking On the Internet

Abstract

The Internet was not designed for control. In fact, its fundamental design characteristic, decentralization, makes control very difficult. This centralized/decentralized control issue is illustrated below. On the left is a network structure that is suited to control: A typical telephone system, where everything goes through a central switchboard. Control just one point the switchboard and you control everything. We call this a star network. On the right is a mesh network. There are multiple paths between any one point on the network and any other point. This arrangement is very difficult to control.