Researcher Runs IP Network Over Xylophones

joabj writes "Following up on experiments of running Internet Protocol(IP)-based networks with carrier pigeons or bongos, UofC grad student R. Stuart Geiger has demonstrated that it is possible to transmit simple ping requests across two computers using people playing xylophones. Throughput is roughly 1 baud, when the participants don't make any mistakes, or get bored and wander off. The OSI encapsulated model of networking makes this project doable, allowing humans to be inserted at Layer 1, the physical layer. Vint Cerf wasn't kidding when he used to say, 'IP on Everything.'"

Re:they forgot to add parity notes

[TheRealMindChild]

IP doesn't mean TCP/IP. The TCP half is what does the error control. Therefore, a ping wouldn't have error correction... just "appropriately replied/didn't reply appropriately"

Here's a better article....

[Dark$ide]

I stopped reading the article because they can't spell "ACSII".

So a quick Google turns up this Black-boxing the User: Internet Protocol over Xylophone Players (IPoXP) [altchi.org]

That's a Glockenspiel, not a Xylophone.

[Anonymous Coward]

The article states that the musical instrument has "aluminum keys". From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glockenspiel :

"[A glockenspiel] is similar to the xylophone; however, the xylophone's bars are made of wood, while the glockenspiel's are metal plates or tubes, thus making it a metallophone."

Re:only 1 baud?

[msauve]

The baud rate is insignificant of throughput, it's not clear why it was even mentioned, especially in relation to throughput. Each note encodes 4 bits (a hex digit), so although it does run at 1 baud, the system runs at 4 bps.

Your math is way off. With 8 notes, each encodes 3 bits; two notes allow 64 different combinations (not 1.6 million!), or 6 bits.

Re:That's a Glockenspiel, not a Xylophone.

[rubycodez]

And for those who slept in biology, xylem tissue transports water and dissolved nutrients, in a tree it is the wood. The word comes from the Greek xylon, which means wood. So a xylophone must be wooden.