The Internet started as the research network, called Arpanet in late 1960s. The Internet today has around one billion users, and is becoming global social infrastructure.
The Internet has been very successful. But, partially due to its extraordinary success, it is facing problems such as security, mobility, management, and scalability among others[Clark, Chon2007]. This is particularly true since the Internet is positioned to be the critical global social infrastructure. Future Internet development have been taken place in order to solve these problems. Most of the Future Internet projects are addressing on the current Internet; how to make the Internet secure, how to provide mobility, how to make the Internet more manageable, how to make the Internet more scalable, and so on.
There are one billion users today[Internet], and we expect 2~3 billion users by 2020, primarily because of the cellular phones with the Internet capability. There are 5.5 billion people without the Internet today, and 4~5 billion people without the Internet in 2020 if the current trend will continue. Many of them are in developing countries, but some are in the developed countries, too. In order for the Internet to become critical global social infrastructure, we need to address "The Other Billions", i.e., the remaining people without the Internet access, which will be more than 50% even fifteen years from today when the Future Internet will be deployed. We may face digital divide in much worse condition in future[Chon2001].
What we need is to look at the current Internet from the non-user's perspective in addition to the current user's perspective. The latter has been addressed well through the Future Internet debate among the developed countries, but not the former except some occasional cases[Brewer]. Technologies on Future Internet as well as access devices for The Other Billions shall be developed. Network infrastructure for The Other Billions shall be engineered properly. Some of the issues for The Other Billions share with the issues for the First Billion Internet Users, but others do not share.
The access devices for The Other Billions may be typically cellular phones and inexpensive computers. The current Internet access is done through 500 million computers and 500 million cellular phones. In 2020, we expect around one billion computers and 3~4 billion cellular phones. Many of The Other Billions are expected to access the Internet through cellular phones and inexpensive computers such as the so-called $100 computer[OLPC]. We need to come up with the Internet architecture where the primary access devices are the cellular phone with 2~4 inch screen, and very inexpensive laptop computers. Several countries including Japan and Korea are leading on the Internet access through the cellular phones today. But, they are expensive now, and we need inexpensive solutions. Negroponte and others has been working on the so-called $100 laptop, and we need much more development of the $100 dollar laptop including its software. We also need "$100 cellular phones with the Internet access" in addition to cellular phones with even lower prices but without the Internet access. User interface shall be tuned to smaller input and output components as well as display mobility.
Some of the technologies we shall consider for The Other Billions include the following and more;
- Disrupt/Delay Tolerant Network(DTN)
- Wireless (Backbone) Network
- Storage Network
- Network Management
Disrupt/Delay Tolerant Network(DTN) was originally developed for the Interplanetary Internet[Cerf]. DTN was being discovered to be a useful concept for The Other Billions, in particular among developing countries where proper network infrastructure is not available. We need to progress much further on DTN research in order for the technology to be used properly in the developing countries. Some of the technologies being developed under DTN such as Bundle Layer need to be investigated for the environment of The Other Billions. Physical network infrastructure alone may not be good enough when when we develop DTN technology for the developing countries. We also need to consider the applications, which will be common among the developing countries in future. Similar paradigm shift on the applications and usage of the Internet would happened among the developing countries(The Other Billions) like the developed countries(The First Billion).
Wireless networks including wireless backbone networks are important technology for The Other Billions since wired networks are not available in many places; both backbone networks and access networks. Thus, the wireless networks tend to be used more commonly, and replace the wireless networks in many places. These phenomena raise many new issues including routing, disruption, delay, and so on.
Storage network is another important concept for the Future Internet, and in particular for The Other Billions in developing countries. Elaborate storages may be needed at edges due to lack of dependable broadband backbone networks as well as paradigm shift on the Internet to publish/subscribe. Caching and mirroring shall be tuned to the developing countries for The Other Billions. If Moore's Law dictates the storage capacity increase, a typical computers would have peta bytes of storage in 2020's, which could be used as servers at the edge. Much effort would be needed on the storage network research and development to address these issues.
Network management is particularly important issue for the developing countries. Over 60% of network problems today are caused by misconfiguration. This could be worse among the developing countries where it is hard to find good trained network engineers. In order for the Internet to be critical social infrastructure, the network management shall be done with much less effort.
Engineering of the Internet is also an important issue. Even if we come up with appropriate technologies, access devices, and applications, we may not have properly functioning network systems if we don't do engineering properly. Much engineering effort has been focused to The First Billion of the developed countries. Engineering effort for The Other Billions are typically done as "after thought", i.e., derivative of the engineering effort of the developed countries. We need good engineering scheme for the developing countries of The Other Billions for the network to serve them properly. Severe environmental conditions such as heat, humidity, and dust as well as poor quality of electric power shall be considered when networks and access devices are deployed [Brewer].
