Taming Limits with Approximate Networking

TL;DR

This paper advocates for 'approximate networking' as a resilient approach that employs contextually-appropriate tradeoffs to sustain internet services amid resource scarcity and societal limits.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of approximate networking as a strategy to adapt internet infrastructure to long-term resource constraints and societal limits.

Findings

Proposes approximate networking as a resilient alternative.

Highlights the importance of context-aware tradeoffs.

Suggests potential for sustaining internet services during scarcity.

Abstract

Internet is the linchpin of modern society, which the various threads of modern life weave around. But being a part of the bigger energy-guzzling industrial economy, it is vulnerable to disruption. It is widely believed that our society is exhausting its vital resources to meet our energy requirements, and the cheap fossil fuel fiesta will soon abate as we cross the tipping point of global oil production. We will then enter the long arc of scarcity, constraints, and limits---a post-peak "long emergency" that may subsist for a long time. To avoid the collapse of the networking ecosystem in this long emergency, it is imperative that we start thinking about how networking should adapt to these adverse "undeveloping" societal conditions. We propose using the idea of "\textit{approximate networking}"---which will provide \textit{good-enough} networking services by employing \textit{contextually-appropriate} tradeoffs---to survive, or even thrive, in the conditions of scarcity and limits.