RFC stands for Request For Comments, which is a memorandum published by Software Engineers through the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). Normally these are fairly technical documents describing new concepts, proposals or descriptions of the inner workings of Netwoking Protocols.
Most of the networking concepts and protocols used to power todays Internet have been described by RFCs. For example the Hyper Text Transmission Protocol or HTTP that delivers the web content to our browsers is described in HTTP - RFC 2616. Another fundamental protocol, SMTP, that drives the e-mail is desribed in SMTP - RFC 5321.
Computer Scientists Have Humor Too
On April Fool's day 1990, David Waitzman described, a humorous but scientifically correct, networking protocol where the information packets are exchanged using carrier pigeons! He described this in an RFC - IP over Avian Carriers (IPoAC) - RFC 1149.
Quote from the RFC
Multiple types of service can be provided with a prioritized pecking order. An additional property is built-in worm detection and eradication. Because IP only guarantees best effort delivery, loss of a carrier can be tolerated. With time, the carriers are self-regenerating. While broadcasting is not specified, storms can cause data loss. There is persistent delivery retry, until the carrier drops. Audit trails are automatically generated, and can often be found on logs and cable trays.
On 28 April 2001, IPoAC was actually implemented by the Bergen Linux User Group. They sent nine packets over a distance of approximately five kilometers (three miles), each carried by an individual pigeon and containing one ping (ICMP Echo Request) and received four responses. with a packet loss ratio of 55% (due to user error), and a response time ranging from 3000 seconds (~54 minutes) to over 6000 seconds (~1.77 hours)
During this experiment some of the pigeons bumped into window glass panes. Apparently Alan Cox , who is a big Linux fan, remarked that "Oh, no! Windows causing problems again!"
Humor Continues
David Waitzman described an improvement of his protocol in RFC 2549, IP over Avian Carriers with Quality of Service (1 April 1999). On 1 April 2011, and 13 years after the introduction of IPv6, Carpenter and Hinden published RFC 6214 which is adaptation of RFC 1149 for IPv6.
Pigeon versus Telkom SA
On 9 September 2009, the marketing team of The Unlimited, a regional company in South Africa, decided to host a Pigeon Race against Telkom SA. The race is to send 4 gigabytes of data approximately 60 km apart. The pigeon carrying a microSD card beat the Telkom ADSL line with the data transfer over Telkom's ADSL line. Total time was two hours, six minutes and 57 seconds from uploading data on the microSD card to completion of download from card. At the time of IPoAC Pigeons's victory, the ADSL transfer was just under 4% complete!
Great article Sai,
Lovely article. Keep writing
Anil
Posted by: Dr.M.Anil Ramesh | 01/18/2012 at 03:28 AM