I asked for a review copy of The Future of the Internet Protocol thinking it was a book; I'm not, in general, a fan of audio-visual material. In this case, however, I was pleasantly surprised. The Future of the Internet Protocol is a collection of 8 half hour interviews from Carol Malamud's "Geek of the Week" segment on Internet talk radio. The interviewees are Bob Braden, Peter Casner, Noel Chiapa, Steve Deering, Peter Ford, Bob Hinden, Christian Huitema and Craig Partridge. The interviews range beyond discussion of the future of the Internet Protocol: as well as some of the IPng proposals, they cover the history and future of the Internet, mobile IP, multicasting and the MBone, gigabit networking, quality of service and charging issues, transition problems, and political issues. Not all of those interviewed are good speakers, but they really know what they are talking about, which makes a pleasant change from listening to journalists, politicians and the trendy blathering on about the "information superhighway" and "cyberspace". While it's impossible to go into much detail in a half hour interview, it is assumed that the listener has a general knowledge of how the existing TCP/IP protocols and internet work.

No dates are given for the interviews, but it's clear that some are already a year and a half old, and they will age rapidly. For the moment, however, The Future of the Internet Protocol is a great way to get a broad overview of what is happening with internet research, especially for those of us without the time to read RFCs and internet drafts or to follow the various ietf mailing lists.

February 1995

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