894 Reading Notes: How Stuff Works

“How Ethernet Works”: Useful terms

This article by Nick Pidgeon (2000) was the best overview for the basic terminology, as below:

o   Local Area (LAN) usually within a building

o   Wide Area (WAN) think two local libraries, for example

§  Fiber optic connections are blurring distinctions between two because of increases in speed, efficiency

o   Protocol—set of rules governing connections, must be shared by devices on networks; establish rules for constructing frames

§  Maximum/minimum lengths, required information (such as destination & source addresses),

§  No two devices have same addresses

o   “Broadcast address” causes all devices in network to receive; otherwise, devices discard messages not intended for them (though they do “see” such messages if connected to medium)

o   Medium—cable, whether coaxial copper or fiber optic

o   Segment—contains a single shared medium (i.e. cable)

o   Node—devices that attach to a segment

o   Frame—chunks of information communicated between nodes

Tone of techno-topia: “How Home Networking Works” and “How Wireless Mesh Networks Work”

The first article are I read was Wilson & Fuller’s 2001 article on home networking.  It was pretty straightforward. Most of the terms and concepts were not particularly new for me. I did, however, find the discussion of advancements in the technology for healthcare and housing to be interesting.  Although some of the affordances that the technology offers for healthcare providers to monitor patients at home and for homeowners to control climate and security options for their homes while they are away were really interesting, the slightly overawed tone put me off a little.  In fact, I also found the same tone in Roos’ article, “How Wireless Mesh Networks Work” (2007).  To be fair, he was talking about some of the ways that wiring things that I’d never imagined wiring offers new opportunities, it reminds me a little of the how-we-are-all-going-to-be-living-in-the-future children’s books that I remember seeing when I was a child.  I don’t think that sort of techno-topia is quite as common now, but new and cool stuff still does have a tendency to make people gush a little. 

Maximizing interactivy: “How Wireless Mesh Networks Work”

I do want to summarize a few points in Roos’ 2007 article on wireless mesh networks, though, because these were new to me.  The main thing that struck me was that by using the presence of proximate devices and by populating the space with a number of small wi-fi transmitters that wireless capability surprisingly can offer more efficient transmission than dedicated cables.  This made sense when I thought about it, but it wasn’t something that would have automatically occurred to me.

I was impressed with the many benefits that wireless mesh networks can provide, for example:

o   Works with all types of devices.  I’d always thought of network nodes being primarily desktop work stations, but here printers and smart phones and scanners and what-have-you can not only receive but also pass on information.

o   For urban areas, mesh nodes on street lights and stop lights can be used by emergency workers when phone or cell service is down.

o   Can also be used for diagnostics on power, water supplies without the need to dig and run lines.

o   Can be used in developing countries as alternative to physical phone system; solar-powered nodes can obviate need for electricity and connect to satellite or cellular system.

o   Good for colleges because require fewer wired locations and improves bandwidth for sharing larger files (i.e. apparently can break up packets and send multiple directions to reunite later (if I understand correctly)).

o   Also good for densely populated buildings, institutions like hospitals, hotels, etc., where dense mesh connections can be built up instead of wiring everything.

o   Good for temporary and outdoor venues.

o   Good for keeping inventory with scanning devices in large warehouses.

o   There are probably future military uses for battlefield surveillance networks (i.e. devices dropped into various battlefield locations)

Maximizing the interactivity does seem to have a downside in my opinion.  Surveillance devices in this type of a setting kill two birds with one stone.  They can service as additional network devices, increasing transmission options.  Of course, they also do their normal surveillance job.  Surely this will increase the likelihood of making public spaces even more capable of tracking us than they already are.  Most of us—I am not an exception—love the idea of maximizing connectivity and all the conveniences of a fully-wired space.  On the other hand, I do feel a sense of disquiet about the electronic eyes watching me.

Topologies: “How Hybrid Networks Work”

Several articles discussed topologies, such as the star topology and the token ring, but this one was particularly helpful in clarifying these concepts for me.  I found the pros and cons of the different arrangements interesting, for example, the central hub of the star topology allows for certain efficiencies of centralization, but the one-way traffic of the token ring prevents collisions on the same segment.  I think the topologies probably can be leveraged into productive metaphors, but I don’t yet know what these might be.

Emerging concepts: What I’m noticing so far

First, I have noticed two opposing principles, somewhat ironic in their opposition, the principle of materiality and the principle of invisibility.  First, networks—computer, water, electric, social—all have actual physical nodes even as the conduits may be less obviously physical (wi-fi).  Second, the material aspects are largely invisible.  The cables are in the walls, underground, out of sight.  Reductions in size also allows network connections to weave themselves more firmly into the fabric of our lives while becoming less and less visible.  I was reminded of a book that I bought quite a while ago, Beneath the Metropolis, describing underground conduits, ancient and modern, that run under world cities such as New York, Mexico City, Paris, Cairo, Tokyo and others (Marshall & Emblidge, 2006).  The book describes subway tunnels, aqueducts, underground shopping centers, escape tunnels, sewers, even tectonic plates.  Although the book doesn’t particularly go into fiber-optic cables and things like that, clearly these are also similarly invisible and equally important.

I had a personal experience that illustrated the principle of materiality, at least in relation to submarine communication cables.  I was visiting Vietnam for 10 days over Christmas in 2006, and I ran out of money. Frustratingly, my credit card stopped working. The reason, I was told, is that there had been an earthquake in Taiwan.  The irony is that I lived and worked in Taiwan, but the earthquake affected me more than it did my friends back in Taiwan because it had snapped the submarine cable that Vietnam depended on for the internet and rendered my credit card unusable. In the end, I had to call my boss in Taiwan and have him wire money to a bank in Vietnam, and I had to take a motorcycle taxi to another city to pick it up.  I’m not sure exactly how wiring money got around the issues with the cables, but at any rate, my plan B worked, and I was able to finance the rest of my trip.

Networks represented? Art connections

For some reason, this initial discussion of computer networking also got me thinking of art, I’m not sure why.  I thought of Kandinsky because the style of his art reminded me of networks.  

Wikimedia commons image: Vassily Kandinsky, 1923 - Composition 8, huile sur toile, 140 cm x 201 cm, Musée Guggenheim, New York.jpg

Searching out Kandinksy I found a fascinating article from MOMA with a network showing the genealogical relationship between Kandinsky and many of the other abstract artists who influenced him or that he influenced.  I also went searching for and found a contemporary artist doing what is described as new media art.  Deborah Aschheim does mixed media networks using digital devices and sculpture, all in an attempt to represent memory as a neural networks.   

References

Franklin, C. (2000, July 31). How routers work. HowStuffWorks.com. Retrieved from 
http://computer.howstuffworks.com/router.htm

HowStuffWorks.com. (2011, July 19). What is a network server?
HowStuffWorks.com. Retrieved from http://computer.howstuffworks.com/what-is-network-server.htm

Marshall, A., & Emblidge, D. (2006). Beneath the metropolis: The secret lives of cities. New York: Caroll & Graf.

Pidgeon, N. (2000, April 1). How Ethernet works. HowStuffWorks.com. Retrieved from 
http://computer.howstuffworks.com/ethernet.htm

Roos, D. (2008, March 11). How hybrid networks work. HowStuffWorks.com. Retrieved from 
http://computer.howstuffworks.com/hybrid-networks.htm

Roos, D. (2007, June 20). How wireless mesh networks work. HowStuffWorks.com. Retrieved from 
http://computer.howstuffworks.com/how-wireless-mesh-networks-work.htm

Wilson, T.V., & Fuller, J. (2001, April 30). How home networking works. HowStuffWorks.com. Retrieved from 
http://computer.howstuffworks.com/home-network.htm