Netsukuku and ICT infrastructure in the Developing World
Netsukuku network application: enabled self-buiding and self-sustaining ICT infrastructure for developing countries. End-users, in order to connect their PC to the rest of the World through the Internet, have to make a subscription with an Internet Operator. The Domain Names, as well, are the unique way by which a network attached device (which could consist of a computer, a file server, a network storage device, a fax machine, a cable modem, etc.) is known on the Internet, and are literally sold through the centralised system of the Domain Name System (DNS). Netsukuku, an Open Source software, downloadable from http://netsukuku.freaknet.org makes possible the creation of a new distributed global Net, expandable to an unlimited number of users, alternative, independent and totally apart from the Internet. The Netsukuku particular routing system, created by some members of the "Freaknet" group of Catania (Italy), allows the PCs to link each other in a network self-sustained, sharing a small part of their own resources. Anybody has the chance to join this Net and, at the same time, to let other users do the same. In those countries and areas of the globe where Internet facilities are still not available, a public Net can be created and developed in a very simple way (i.e. through a wi-fi coverage), without depending on any Internet Operators. In the same way, all the contents holder will be able to share any documents simply from their PC, since a maximum of 256 hostnames can be automatically supported by each node of the Net. Last but not least, inside Netsukuku Net all the users will have the chance to get through the Internet: in fact any user can get the connectivity to Internet from other users that share, at any moment, into the net the portion of bandwidth they don't. Netsukuku routing system differs from all the other protocols and algorithms: the existing dynamic mesh schemes are solely utilised to create small and medium nets. The routers of Internet are also managed by different protocols as the OSPF, the RIP or the BGP, all based on different classical algorithms. These algorithms are able to find out the best path to reach a node in the net, but require a very high waste of CPU and memory. That's why inside Internet, all the routers are powerful computers specifically dedicated to this purpose. On the contrary, when a node hooks to Netsukuku, the net automatically rewrites itself, while all the other nodes, using a very small part of the CPU and of the memory resource (a few kb), recognised which are the fastest and more efficient routes to communicate with the new arrived. The nodes don't have privileges or limitations: when compared to other nodes, they are part of the net and give their contribution to its expansion and efficiency. The more they increase in number the more the net grows and becomes stable. In Netsukuku there is any difference between private and public nets and talking about LAN, MAN or WAN becomes meaningless. -CLazop