Tunisia, Egypt, Miami: The Importance of Internet Choke Points

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/01/tunisia-egypt-miami-the-importance-of-internet-choke-points/70415/

by shawndumas • 15 years ago

50 10 15 years ago

theatlantic.com

russnewcomer• 15 years ago

I guess this goes to show that geography does matter, even for the survival of the internet.

On the other hand, the Egyptians who cut off their country's internet were wise enough to not just black hole everything that went through their routers and trash a lot of world-wide traffic. They can still position their actions as a local police action, instead of a disruption of global commerce.

jacquesm• 15 years ago

What would a modern day invasion look like?

It used to be control of the radio and TV stations, bridges, railroads and the airports, it may very well be that in the current century the control of cell phone towers and routers will trump those in priority. You can disable the power by graphite bombing power stations (see Belgrade) but that will probably not have an immediate effect on the network.

Of course the quickest way to put the routers out of commission is to simply destroy them but if you want to be able to put them back online later it will have to be done more subtle.

I recall how immediately after the invasion of Iraq a bunch of entrepreneurial types brought in a cell phone exchange in a container and a bunch of GSM phones, they were immediately confiscated by the US army. At the time the theory was that the US wanted a US company to own the Iraqi telephone infrastructure for commercial reasons but there may have been another motive there.

drndown2007• 15 years ago

I assume (hope) there must be some smart people somewhere starting to work on some sort of P2P/mesh internet replacement that could work with all the wireless routers out there in order to prepare for the day when something like this happens again... ?

borism3• 15 years ago

wireless. easily jammable.

cb18• 15 years ago

like cutting a cable is "jammable"

Presumably a wireless jamming method would have an area/circle/sphere of effectiveness.

Whereas the critical nodes of a wired network are somewhat locked in place, critical nodes in a network of transportable, wirelessly communicating nodes can be relocated to route around jamming.

ck2• 15 years ago

I was thinking the OLPC with it's peer-to-peer wifi (wireless ad-hoc) for 3rd world countries would be handy in an environment with no other communications...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Self-form-self-heal.gif

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_mesh_networking

sliverstorm• 15 years ago

Common wireless devices would probably need a good deal more range for this to work well. It would be really cool, but it'd have to be able to route around entire neighborhoods, or even entire cities if central power was destroyed.

Swannie• 15 years ago

A little misleading.

The thing is, in London, they realised this years ago. So the biggest peering house created a second building, then a third, in geographically diverse parts of the City. Not to mention that they weren't the only company doing it.

This is true in any city in the world.

What aren't mentioned are the cable landing points. There are only a few of these on the coasts of our countries, compared to the diversity inside the country.

borism3• 15 years ago

yup. peering disputes/wars happen all the time. it doesn't matter who owns the physical building.

The King is the one who has passwords to the routers.

Tunisia, Egypt, Miami: The Importance of Internet Choke Points

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