Designing an Internet (Information Policy)
暫譯: 設計一個網際網路（資訊政策）
David D. Clark
商品描述
Why the Internet was designed to be the way it is, and how it could be different, now and in the future.
How do you design an internet? The architecture of the current Internet is the product of basic design decisions made early in its history. What would an internet look like if it were designed, today, from the ground up? In this book, MIT computer scientist David Clark explains how the Internet is actually put together, what requirements it was designed to meet, and why different design decisions would create different internets. He does not take today's Internet as a given but tries to learn from it, and from alternative proposals for what an internet might be, in order to draw some general conclusions about network architecture.
Clark discusses the history of the Internet, and how a range of potentially conflicting requirements―including longevity, security, availability, economic viability, management, and meeting the needs of society―shaped its character. He addresses both the technical aspects of the Internet and its broader social and economic contexts. He describes basic design approaches and explains, in terms accessible to nonspecialists, how networks are designed to carry out their functions. (An appendix offers a more technical discussion of network functions for readers who want the details.) He considers a range of alternative proposals for how to design an internet, examines in detail the key requirements a successful design must meet, and then imagines how to design a future internet from scratch. It's not that we should expect anyone to do this; but, perhaps, by conceiving a better future, we can push toward it.
商品描述(中文翻譯)
為什麼網際網路是這樣設計的，以及它現在和未來可能會有什麼不同。
如何設計一個網際網路？當前網際網路的架構是早期歷史中做出的基本設計決策的產物。如果今天從零開始設計一個網際網路，它會是什麼樣子？在這本書中，麻省理工學院的計算機科學家大衛·克拉克（David Clark）解釋了網際網路的實際組成、它被設計來滿足的需求，以及為什麼不同的設計決策會創造出不同的網際網路。他並不將今天的網際網路視為理所當然，而是試圖從中學習，並從對網際網路可能性的替代提案中汲取經驗，以便對網路架構得出一些一般性的結論。
克拉克討論了網際網路的歷史，以及一系列潛在的衝突需求——包括持久性、安全性、可用性、經濟可行性、管理以及滿足社會需求——如何塑造了其特性。他同時關注網際網路的技術方面及其更廣泛的社會和經濟背景。他描述了基本的設計方法，並以非專業人士易於理解的方式解釋了網路是如何設計以執行其功能的。（附錄提供了更技術性的網路功能討論，供希望了解細節的讀者參考。）他考慮了一系列替代提案，探討成功設計必須滿足的關鍵需求，然後想像如何從零開始設計未來的網際網路。我們不應期望任何人做到這一點；但或許，通過構思更美好的未來，我們可以朝著這個方向推進。
