RFC 3251 (rfc3251) - Page 2 of 9

Electricity over IP

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 Electricity distribution must be based on some outdated technology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