Sneaker network

Sneakers network ( English : sneakernet , sneaker-net or sneaker net ) is a rather ironic term for the exchange of data between two or more computers , which is often not done via a conventional computer network , but via a data carrier (e.g. floppy disk or USB stick ) Walking between two computers takes place. One reason for choosing this transmission path may be missing or incompatible network interfaces or data transfer rates that are too low . In special cases, the sneaker network is used in the configuration of highly secure systems, when connection to a network is not an option due to the required level of security . This type of data carrier exchange was also very popular in companies. Data on diskettes or magnetic tapes was exchanged between individual companies.

commitment

The sneaker network is also ideal for very large amounts of data or when the transfer rate is insufficient. In this way, researchers have transported 120 terabytes of data from the Hubble space telescope from their research facilities to a Google data center. The raw data for SETI @ home were also stored on magnetic tape in Arecibo and then sent by post to Berkeley, where they were processed and distributed to the clients via the Internet . In addition, it is used in the film industry due to the large amounts of data (lossless compressed films).

Efficiency

The American computer scientist Andrew S. Tanenbaum refers with the sentence

"Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of tapes hurtling down the highway."

"Never underestimate the data transfer rate of a station wagon that is fully loaded with tapes and speeds along the motorway."

- Andrew S. Tanenbaum : Computer Networks

on the performance of the concept.

The two parameters latency and data transfer rate are decisive for the performance of connection networks . Despite the high latency, the data transfer rate is often very high (up to several TB per transfer process). Example: In 2018, the internet connection of an urban private household is usually 100 Mbit / s and commercially available hard drives have a capacity of over a terabyte. It takes about 22 hours to transfer 1 TB of data over the Internet, and about 2 hours to transfer files over a gigabit network. If you transport such a hard drive by car at an average speed of 100 km / h, the data can be transferred faster via a sneaker network if the computers are less than 2,000 km or 200 km away.

Trivia

In 2016, Amazon introduced the “AWS Snowmobile” service for its Amazon Web Services service , with which several exabytes of data can be transferred with one truck .

See also

• Internet Protocol over Avian Carriers , (in German about "Internet Protocol by means of feathered carriers" / carrier pigeons), a network protocol designed as an April Fool's joke

literature

• Doug Lowe: Networks for Dummies , 5th Edition, Wiley-VCH-Verlag, June 2008, ISBN 978-3-527-70409-5

Individual evidence

1. ^ Sascha Kersken: Compendium of information technology . Galileo Computing, 2004, ISBN 978-3-89842-355-7 .
2. ↑ Google gives researchers storage space. In: Spiegel Online , January 22, 2008
3. ^ SETI @ home - Millions together, searching for a signal from the stars. In: Planetary Society
4. ↑ Chaosradio Express Archive. In: cre.fm. Accessed in 2015 . 
5. ^ Andrew S. Tanenbaum : Computer Networks . Prentice-Hall, New Jersey 1996, ISBN 0-13-349945-6 , p. 83.
6. ↑ Markus Baumgartner: gup.uni-linz.ac.at
7. ↑ Data transfer with exabyte scaling | AWS Snowmobile. Retrieved June 10, 2018 .