Re: Network interface (was: Draft minutes 2010-09-15)

On Fri, Sep 17, 2010 at 12:04 AM, Dominique Hazael-Massieux <dom@w3.org> wrote:
>
> Could you develop somewhat this use case, possibly with a user story?

I hope so.

>> 1. Able to send IP packets (as a bandwidth)
>> 2. Able to receive IP packets (as a bandwidth)
>
> Isn't that the same as maxDownloadBandwith and maxUploadBandwith?

In practice measurements are usually a fraction of the stated maximum.
 On radio networks the fraction is larger, but all networks experience
variable amounts of congestion. Both end users and sysadmins use
various tools to measure these statistics.  An example would be a
broadband user visiting a web page to measure their bandwidths, or a
sysadmin periodically measuring the total time for a file transfer.

>> 3. Round-trip-time statistics
>> 4. End-to-end delivery compatibility (e.g., NAT-free)
>> 5. Network neutrality (e.g., conforming to IANA/ICANN DNS authorities
>> without address translation)
>> 6. Secure-compatibility (e.g., able to send HTTPS traffic without overhead)
>> 7. Expectation of privacy (e.g. via carriers with satisfactory privacy
>> policies and without a history of eavesdropping)
>> 8. Cost per bit
>
> Do you know of any existing network API that allows to access this type
> of information?

Not all of it, but many Unix-derived APIs provide system calls and
tools to measure 3, 4, 5, and 6.

7 and 8 are measured by consumers and influence decisions in selecting
equipment and service providers.  I would love to have those decisions
automated, but law enforcement agencies, for example, might be opposed
to enhancing privacy, and corporations are likely to be opposed to
providing more easily available price information unless the are sure
that they offer the best prices.  I hope that the W3C maintains their
longstanding efforts towards greater privacy and effective consumer
choice.

The expectation of privacy is proportional to cost, too, because of
the principle of reciprocity -- if you don't have to worry about
privacy violations, then the people you communicate with don't have to
worry about them either.

Regards,
James Salsman

Received on Tuesday, 21 September 2010 04:58:06 UTC