Understanding Internet Architecture, a Need for Smarter Networks, TCP and UDP Differences

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Understanding Internet Architecture, a Need for Smarter Networks, TCP and UDP Differences
I'm not going to do justice to Wesley Fryer's long discussion of network architectures. But I do want to key on a theme in the title (and found throughout the article) that suggests that the network can somehow be 'managed' to be more efficient. I think that is a fallacy. In general, the most efficient systems involve 'stupid' networks and 'smart' objects (rather than 'smart' networks and 'stupid' objects). Let me give some examples: the road system is a stupid network, as compared to the rail system, which is a smart - but inefficient - network. More...