What Gutenberg's movable type did to printing, Vinton G Cerf's TCP/IP has probably done to communications. 500 years ago, printed books ignited the Renaissance by making learning widely accessible. Today, TCP/IP makes it possible for over 75,000 server-level computers to talk to each other and deliver Internet to millions, and soon, as Cerf predicts, might find their way into every conceivable electronic device. One of the `Big Daddies' of Internet, Cerf, who co-authored the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol in the early seventies with Bob Kahn, is still sharpening the edge of technology. Having made a wired world possible, Cerf is now involved with the Mars project to work out an interplanetary Internet system. More importantly, he also heads the team responsible for developing and implementing IP Version 6, the next frontier of Internet domains."When we devised TCP/IP, it was only engineers and geeks who were remotely interested. Today, Internet is everywhere and even legislators are seriously considering it," said Cerf in an exclusive interview to The Financial Express. Cerf is currently on a visit to the country in connection with Convergence India '99 being held in New Delhi.
"In India, there's a palpable change in the scenario since my first visit in 1994. This is the Internet gold rush, particularly in India," he said.People making picks and shovels probably make more money than gold diggers, he quipped. Which is where telecommunications steps in. Telecom infrastructure is critical for the widespread use of Internet, said Cerf. He also pointed out that according to a World Bank survey, every dollar spent on telecom results in a $3 increase in GDP. "Go for the fattest pipes (bandwidth) you can build and then, make them fatter. That is the only way for Internet to thrive," he advises.
In the 25 years of existence, IP is now "over everything" in communications. Cerf even predicts that by 2010, the entire traffic in information is likely to be `packetised' through TCP/IP. Over the years, TCP has proven to be amazingly stable on a terrestrial basis. It is IP that now desperately needs a wider address base. "IP V6 can have up to 10 to the power of 38 numbers of addresses. That should take care of the registration fever," says Cerf.
According to him, the pressure is intense for IP V6 to go into production. V6 is currently under prototype implementation. "We will implement the whole thing in no more than two years," promised Cerf. Cerf feels that regulation is a big issue in Internet. The omnipresence of Internet makes separate country-wide regulations unviable.
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.