The internet and identifiers

摘要

One factor driving growth in the Internet is an increase in the number of objects involved in the Internet, whether "real" objects in the physical world such as RFID tags, toasters with IP addresses, or 'virtual' objects such as phone numbers, email addresses, or web pages. A second factor is the growth in bandwidth due to fiber optics, new wireless technologies, and the like. The "push" effect of more objects and the "pull" effect of more capability creates powerful reinforcement. Since the first step in any network activity is identifying the parties to the activity, there's a corresponding need for more and better technologies for creating identifiers, as well as technologies for search, management, etc.We rely on a variety of techniques, services, and layers of identity in today's Internet. But we need to be certain that today's services can scale and that we learn from past efforts such as ENUM, and develop effective methodologies for future problems. This talk takes a look at the technologies in use, their interdependencies, and some outstanding issues and problems.