[Cryptography] traffic analysis -> let's write an RFC?

[John Gilmore]

Ben Laurie wrote:
> >> > Yeah, but ... who can realistically afford that bandwidth?

Gilmore wrote:
> >> Your employer Google can - it owns the fibers among its data centers
> >> (and many other fibers, I believe).  Clearly, Jerry's remark ("If you
> >> own the link") was addressed to link-level encryption.

Ben replied:
> > Clearly the idea was you design your network so that you do own the link.
> > Which brings me back to my question (even Google cannot afford that much
> > network, I suspect).

For those with shorter memories, back in 2005 when there was a huge
glut of fiber capacity, Google bought what the press alleged was hundreds
of millions or billions of dollars' worth of dark fiber.

  http://readwrite.com/2013/12/17/internet-backbone-google-amazon-facebook-microsoft

  "First, a little historical context. During the dot-com boom of the
  late 1990s and early 2000s, big telecom companies rushed to build up
  network capacity, anticipating a vast increase in Internet traffic
  from all corners of the world. But these companies overextended
  themselves and ended up building way more cables than what was
  necessary at the time. In doing so, they drove the prices of fiber
  and data way down and ended up bankrupt and broken.

  "Enter Google. Born in the late 1990s and flush with cash just a few
  years later, the search giant seized an unparalled opportunity to
  start buying up this dark fiber capacity on the cheap."

  http://money.cnn.com/magazines/business2/business2_archive/2005/09/01/8356497/index.htm

  "Business 2.0 has learned from telecom insiders that Google is
  already building such a network, though ostensibly for many
  reasons. For the past year, it has quietly been shopping for miles
  and miles of "dark," or unused, fiber-optic cable across the country
  from wholesalers such as New York's AboveNet. It's also acquiring
  superfast connections from Cogent Communications and WilTel, among
  others, between East Coast cities including Atlanta, Miami, and New
  York. Such large-scale purchases are unprecedented for an Internet
  company, but Google's timing is impeccable. The rash of telecom
  bankruptcies has freed up a ton of bargain-priced capacity, which
  Google needs as it prepares to unleash a flood of new,
  bandwidth-hungry applications."

  http://news.cnet.com/Google-wants-dark-fiber/2100-1034_3-5537392.html

  http://www.lightreading.com/optical/dwdm/google-dark-fiber-story-not-so-dark/d/d-id/633236

  http://www.eweek.com/c/a/IT-Infrastructure/Google-and-Its-Continuing-Dark-Fiber-Mystery

  http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/tech-myths/5-myths-about-google5.htm
  
  http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/2007/pulpit_20070119_001510.html
  "Google controls more network fiber than any other organization."

	John