Stanford researchers imagine an Internet built from scratch

It could be called the "Hindsight is 20/20 Project" because it asks the question, "What would the Internet look like if it could be rebuilt from scratch?" But in asking the question, Stanford researchers hope to find answers to the Internet's more persistent problems, reports Campus Technology.

Stanford's "Clean Slate Design for the Internet" project has a team of researchers examining the deficiencies of the Internet and how it could be shaped into a global communications infrastructure.

"We should be able to answer that question by saying we created exactly what we need, not just that we patched some more holes, made some new tweaks or came up with some more workarounds," Nick McKeown, the Stanford computer science associate professor who is leading the project. "Let's invent the car instead of giving the same horse better hay."

Among the projects is Ethane, a 400-user wireless network that tests a new way to deal with managing network security -- first prohibit all communications, then open only those channels that are appropriate to the organization. Another project is looking for ways to give wireless devices the flexibility to find and access pockets of unused spectrum when they need it.