The FacultyThe Faculty · Baran Edition
Baran
The lab
10 instruments- INST·180◆Baran EditionexperimentThe PacketCut the message into blocks, give every node a little redundancy and no map, and the network routes around the crater by itself.protocolnetworksroutingsurvivabilitydistributed
- INST·181◆Baran EditionexperimentThe WindowSixteen senders share one wire and no one tells them its speed. Halve on a loss, add one on an ack, and they find the capacity and split it fairly.protocoltcpcongestion-controlfairnessnetworks
- INST·182◆Baran EditionexperimentThe ChoiceThrow a million jobs at a thousand servers at random and some server gets buried. Let each job glance at just two servers first, and the worst pile shrinks from logarithmic to doubly logarithmic.protocolload-balancingprobabilityqueues
- INST·183◆Baran EditionexperimentThe HashAdd one server to a thousand and an ordinary hash table reshuffles nearly every key. Put the servers on a ring and only the keys between two neighbours move.protocolhashingdistributed-systemschord
- INST·184◆Baran EditionexperimentThe ClockFive machines, five drifting clocks, messages that take their time. Nobody can say which of two events came first, unless one could have caused the other.protocoldistributed-systemstimecausality
- INST·185◆Baran EditionexperimentThe RumorTell one node, and each node tells one random other each round. Every one of sixteen thousand knows in about twenty-five rounds, and nobody had a list.protocolgossipepidemicsdistributed-systems3d
- INST·186◆Baran EditionexperimentThe GeneralsSeven generals must attack together or not at all, and some of them are traitors. Relay what you heard, vote what you were told, and the loyal agree, right up to a third.protocoldistributed-systemsconsensusfault-tolerance
- INST·187◆Baran EditionexperimentThe WhipCustomers buy a steady four cases a week, then eight. Four honest managers, each ordering sensibly from the orders they see, turn that one step into a wave that swamps the factory.protocolsupply-chainfeedbacksystem-dynamics
- INST·188◆Baran EditionexperimentThe GridA continent of spinning generators must turn in step at fifty hertz, with no conductor. Each one only feels the phase of its own wires. Cut one overloaded line and watch the cascade decide whether the lights stay on.protocolpower-gridsynchronizationcascades3d
- INST·189◆Baran EditionexperimentThe ChainStrangers who trust nobody keep one ledger by racing to solve a lottery. A liar with less than half the hashing power can rewrite history, but the odds of catching up fall exponentially with every block.protocoldistributed-systemsconsensuscryptocurrency3d