[P2P-F] relation between patterns in different fields?

Tue May 10 09:23:59 CEST 2011

any relation with Alexander's work?

see:

Patterns in Network Architecture From P2P Foundation
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** Book: Patterns in Network Architecture: A Return to Fundamentals, by John
Day, ISBN-10: 0132252422, ISBN-13: 9780132252423, Prentice Hall, 2007.*

URL = http://www.informit.com/store/product.aspx?isbn=0132252422

 [edit<http://p2pfoundation.net/Patterns_in_Network_Architecture?title=Patterns_in_Network_Architecture&action=edit&section=1>
] Review

Jon Crowcroft:

"It isn't every day (pun intended) that one of the true Old Guard writes and
publishes a book, and it behooves us to take notice. In this case, the
author's expertise and his subject matter are of particular timeliness,
because of the worldwide resurgence of activities with regard to
next-generation network architectures, that is, a replacement, or upgrade to
the Internet (dare one say "Internet 2.0"?).

John Day is a well-known scholar of historical cartography, and this book,
in a way, is a roadmap of network architecture. The roadmap starts back in
1970, tracing from the roots of connectionless packet-switched dynamically
routed systems such as Cyclades, and the ARPANET, through to recent
discussions on multihoming, multicast, and mobility, with a view along the
way of naming, addressing, protocol stack design, protocol design, and
concepts of layering.

That description makes the book sound fairly standard in terms of structure
and content, but it isn't. The book includes many discursive elements whose
intent is to provide a collection of patterns. Design patterns originated in
the building trade as a way for crafts people to pass on successful methods
of construction (in the sense of affordable and noncollapsing) to
less-inventive people (or people who want to spend their inventive efforts
in different areas). Software engineers picked up on this idea, applying the
techniques in both the microscopic world: patterns allow you to decide what
algorithm is applicable in solving a problem in the small; and the
macroscopic world: architectural patterns allow you to decide on an approach
to breaking down a large system into the right kind of components.

Essentially, this book does the same thing, at the protocol stack level, and
at the system level, with a collection of historical and contemporary
examples to support the arguments.

The book makes interesting reading, especially as it represents a fair
balance in reporting the early ideas that came not just from the United
States, and restates the importance of the Opens Systems Interconnection
(OSI) model (not the ISO protocols) in understanding layering and
beads-on-a-string, as well as reasserting the use of the model in clarifying
the perennially confusing concepts of names, addresses, and routes.

The book begins with a discussion of seven principles that emerged through
the early history of networking (I won't spoil the book for readers by
listing them here), and ends in the tenth and final chapter, entitled
"Backing Out of a Blind Alley," with an appeal to fundamentals. Essentially,
the author points out that researchers (especially academics) are strongly
motivated to keep moving on with claims of ever-newer tricks, but rarely to
consolidate these tricks into a set of principles that stand for a long time
(because then they would have to completely change the topic of their
research). Thus uncovering a foundational theory of networking would put a
whole generation of networkers out of work (or funding at least).

The book is peppered (saltily) with fine quotes and fascinating asides from
philosophy (for this reader, especially, the Chinese diversions were most
novel and illuminating). Illustrative of the range is that one finds
Wittgenstein and Dave Clark, Confucius, and Dr. Seuss—Frege's useful
reminder that "The sign '=' should be read as 'is easily confused with'"
would make an excellent IETF T-shirt.
I found the book extremely readable and enjoyable, and although I might
argue with some of the opinions in the book, I think that this is just more
evidence that I should recommend the book to anyone interested in knowing
why we are where we are in networking, and being better informed about where
we should go next."

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