RFC 3251 (rfc3251) - Page 2 of 9
Electricity over IP
Alternative Format: Original Text Document
RFC 3251 Electricity over IP 1 April 2002 2. Pre-requisite for reading this document While reading this document, at various points the readers may have the urge to ask questions like, "does this make sense?", "is this feasible?," and "is the author sane?". The readers must have the ability to suppress such questions and read on. Other than this, no specific technical background is required to read this document. In certain cases (present document included), it may be REQUIRED that readers have no specific technical background. 3. Introduction It was recently brought to our attention that the distribution network for electricity is not an IP network! After absorbing the shock that was delivered by this news, the following thoughts occurred to us: 1. Electricity distribution must be based on some outdated technology (called "Legacy Distribution System" or LDS in the rest of the document). 2. An LDS not based on the Internet technology means that two different networks (electricity and IP) must be administered and managed. This leads to inefficiencies, higher cost and bureaucratic foul-ups (which possibly lead to blackouts in California. We are in the process of verifying this using simulations as part of a student's MS thesis). 3. The above means that a single network technology (i.e., IP) must be used to carry both electricity and Internet traffic. 4. An internet draft must be written to start work in this area, before someone else does. 5. Such a draft can be used to generate further drafts, ensuring that we (and CCAMP, MPLS or another responsible working group) will be busy for another year. 6. The draft can also be posted in the "white papers" section of our company web page, proclaiming us as revolutionary pioneers. Hence the present document. 4. Terminology MPLampS: Mostly Pointless Lamp Switching - the architecture introduced in this document. Lamp: An end-system in the MPLampS architecture (clashes with the IETF notion of end-system but of course, we DON'T care). LER: Low-voltage Electricity Receptor - fancy name for "Lamp". Rajagopalan Informational
