[ih] the state of protocol R&D?

[Miles Fidelman]

Craig,

Thanks!  Good to hear that things are still going on, if not as visibly 
as in the past.  Are there any good email lists or blogs where people 
discuss such things on an ongoing basis?

At least, to a degree, I guess I'm bemoaning what I see as a general 
shift in thinking - away from "let's solve problem <x> with a new 
protocol" and towards "let's build a new platform, with an exposed 
API."  It seems to be shaping the approaches people take to designing 
distributed system, as well as the components and tools available for 
doing so.

Just a few years ago, I was able to find funding for some work on 
protocols for distributed planning and collaboration (first AFRL, then 
CECOM) - but it seems like a lot of the funding has shifted elsewhere 
(mostly cyber security), and, things have become, as you put it, 
"diffuse."  I worry more than a little that knowledge and approaches to 
things are starting to get lost - in part because the work isn't more 
visible.

Miles


Craig Partridge wrote:
> Hi Miles:
>
> There's is a protocol R&D community.  Mostly academic folks (and the list
> of universities is long).  A few industry folks (BBN has about 100 folks
> doing networking research, many of them protocol work; ISI has, I think,
> about 35; IBM has some; Google has a few; Telefonica has some).
>
> In terms of where folks publish -- the venues have been diffuse.  SIGCOMM
> and its workshops are the best starting point, but some of the best
> protocol research discussions I've seen over the past 5 years or so have
> been at Dagstuhl and Monte Verita and NSF program meetings (cf. the next
> generation Internet meetings).
>
> Thanks!
>
> Craig
>
>> Which leads me to wonder - is there much of a protocol r&d community
>> left - academic or otherwise?  Or funders?  And if so, where do folks
>> "congregate?"  For programming languages, there's
>> http://lambda-the-ultimate.org/, conferences like OOPSLA, and there
>> seems to be a steady stream of academic papers.  Is there anything left
>> like that for protocol R&D?
>>
>> Miles Fidelman
>>
>> -- 
>> In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice.
>> In practice, there is.   .... Yogi Berra
> ********************
> Craig Partridge
> Chief Scientist, BBN Technologies
> E-mail: craig at aland.bbn.com or craig at bbn.com
> Phone: +1 517 324 3425


-- 
In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice.
In practice, there is.   .... Yogi Berra