Coin Op Peering Fabric?

Wed Aug 13 14:40:38 UTC 2008

Warning:  This may actually be operational too.
Given Cogent's (and others) recent pursuit of sub $4/mb/s transit (at least
as far as all the bottom feeders and gossippers like to talk about) and the
relatively flat cost of a "paid" peering fabric (even on IP8) and the fancy
non euclidean name dropping formula costs for cross-connects, the thought of
revising current packetized switching model into the historical pay phone
model presents itself again.

Assuming the Clos switch fabric model, if we simply repudiate all
self-evident rights of capitalist business people to compete in a fair
market, we should again return to the days of government subsidized
monopolies and absolved self-responsibility to avoid the perils of
anti-randian unfair competition and a technologically advanced race to the
bottom.

A "coin-op" best-effort pay as you go switching fabric would be in
everyone's best interest (read FAIR and anti-bourgeois classism), and a
community designed Clos switch would present no more than 30% blockage on
non-peak hours.

In this model, people who can't succeed at business could go off and talk
about Spam all day, and in their free time they could move cross-connects
around, kind of like at the early digital non-NSF funded NAPs.

The way I figure it, this would provide a living wage for network engineers
that spend all day arguing abstract points in email.  You'd simply deposit
an American Nickel into the Hawala Peering system.

Does this actually improve the quality of the network experience?  I dunno.

Warning:  This may actually have more Merit than other recent posts and the
hosting organization of this public discussion list.

Yours in contemplation,

(f)Rick N. Idiot