A terrorist attack or other disaster could disrupt the Internet like severe storms at airport hubs tie up air traffic, according to a study released yesterday.
The study by Ohio State University researchers showed that major cities that serve as Internet nodes would continue to have access in most scenarios, although it would probably be less functional.
But small and medium sized cities that link to the Internet through these hub cities could be disconnected from the entire network.
"If you would pick up an octopus, all of its tentacles would come up with it," said researcher Morton O'Kelly. "The major Internet nodes have tentacles that connect to many other cities. If you destroyed a major Internet hub, you would also destroy all the links that are connected to it. It would have ripple effects throughout the Internet."
"The Internet functions much like our air traffic system," said Tony Grubesic, a co-author of the study.
"If weather stops or delays traffic in a major airport hub, like Chicago's O'Hare, air passengers throughout the country may feel the effects -- even if they are not traveling to Chicago. The same is true of the Internet hubs."
Their results appear in the February 2003 issue of the journal Telematics and Informatics.
Grubesic said that for security reasons, networks should not be concentrated too much in major cities.
"The ability for networks to re-route, re-connect and have redundancy is clearly important for the survival of the Internet in the face of disasters," Grubesic said.
"That's why a more decentralized Internet had advantages over a hub-and-spoke model."
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