[ga] UPDATE DARPA wants military to replace TCP/IP with new "Military Network Protocol"

[Joe Baptista <baptista@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The famous Pentagon crazy-ideas bureau, DARPA, wants to reinvent the
internet and make it more suitable for military use. The main thrust of the
effort will be to develop a new Military Network Protocol (MNP), which will
differ from old TCP/IP in that it will offer "improved security, dynamic
bandwidth allocation, and policy-based prioritization at the individual and
unit level".

Lockheed which won the $31m contract will be partnered with Anagran, Juniper
Networks, LGS Innovations, Stanford University and - of course - Microsoft.
DARPA claims 'This time it will actually be for the military, promise'. We
all know what happened last time DARPA tried this. We got the Internet.

David Reed a computer scientist who was heavily involved in the early
development of TCP/IP knowns something about MNP and thinks the project is
"highly confused in its goals".  However according Reed "there is no way to
advise these guys".

"The core idea", says Reed, "seems to be that if you are incompatible with
the Internet, you can be secure". Reed said the justification for MNP
reminds him of the days when countries justified having different railroad
gauges to prevent invasion.

Read more on MNP ... http://bit.ly/4BGiP2

regards
joe baptista