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authorDimitri Staessens <dimitri@ouroboros.rocks>2019-07-05 22:27:04 +0200
committerDimitri Staessens <dimitri@ouroboros.rocks>2019-07-05 22:27:04 +0200
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----
-title: "Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)"
-draft: false
----
-
-Got a question that is not listed here? Just pop it on our IRC channel
-or mailing list and we will be happy to answer it!
-
-[What is Ouroboros?](#what)\
-[Is Ouroboros the same as the Recursive InterNetwork Architecture
-(RINA)?](#rina)\
-[How can I use Ouroboros right now?](#deploy)\
-[What are the benefits of Ouroboros?](#benefits)\
-[How do you manage the namespaces?](#namespaces)\
-
-### <a name="what">What is Ouroboros?</a>
-
-Ouroboros is a packet-based IPC mechanism. It allows programs to
-communicate by sending messages, and provides a very simple API to do
-so. At its core, it's an implementation of a recursive network
-architecture. It can run next to, or over, common network technologies
-such as Ethernet and IP.
-
-[[back to top](#top)]
-
-### <a name="rina">Is Ouroboros the same as the Recursive InterNetwork Architecture (RINA)?</a>
-
-No. Ouroboros is a recursive network, and is born as part of our
-research into RINA networks. Without the pioneering work of John Day and
-others on RINA, Ouroboros would not exist. We consider the RINA model an
-elegant way to think about distributed applications and networks.
-
-However, there are major architectural differences between Ouroboros and
-RINA. The most important difference is the location of the "transport
-functions" which are related to connection management, such as
-fragmentation, packet ordering and automated repeat request (ARQ). RINA
-places these functions in special applications called IPCPs that form
-layers known as Distributed IPC Facilities (DIFs) as part of a protocol
-called EFCP. This allows a RINA DIF to provide an *IPC service* to the
-layer on top.
-
-Ouroboros has those functions in *every* application. The benefit of
-this approach is that it is possible to multi-home applications in
-different networks, and still have a reliable connection. It is also
-more resilient since every connection is - at least in theory -
-recoverable unless the application itself crashes. So, Ouroboros IPCPs
-form a layer that only provides *IPC resources*. The application does
-its connection management, which is implemented in the Ouroboros
-library. This architectural difference impact the components and
-protocols that underly the network, which are all different from RINA.
-
-This change has a major impact on other components and protocols. We are
-preparing a research paper on Ouroboros that will contain all these
-details and more.
-
-[[back to top](#top)]
-
-### <a name="deploy">How can I use Ouroboros right now?</a>
-
-At this point, Ouroboros is a useable prototype. You can use it to build
-small deployments for personal use. There is no global Ouroboros network
-yet, but if you're interested in helping us set that up, contact us on
-our channel or mailing list.
-
-[[back to top](#top)]
-
-### <a name="benefits">What are the benefits of Ouroboros?</a>
-
-We get this question a lot, and there is no single simple answer to
-it. Its benefits are those of a RINA network and more. In general, if
-two systems provide the same service, simpler systems tend to be the
-more robust and reliable ones. This is why we designed Ouroboros the
-way we did. It has a bunch of small improvements over current networks
-which may not look like anything game-changing by themselves, but do
-add up. The reaction we usually get when demonstrating Ouroboros, is
-that it makes everything really really easy.
-
-Some benefits are improved anonymity as we do not send source addresses
-in our data transfer packets. This also prevents all kinds of swerve and
-amplification attacks. The packet structures are not fixed (as the
-number of layers is not fixed), so there is no fast way to decode a
-packet when captured "raw" on the wire. It also makes Deep Packet
-Inspection harder to do. By attaching names to data transfer components
-(so there can be multiple of these to form an "address"), we can
-significantly reduce routing table sizes.
-
-The API is very simple and universal, so we can run applications as
-close to the hardware as possible to reduce latency. Currently it
-requires quite some work from the application programmer to create
-programs that run directly over Ethernet or over UDP or over TCP. With
-the Ouroboros API, the application doesn't need to be changed. Even if
-somebody comes up with a different transmission technology, the
-application will never need to be modified to run over it.
-
-Ouroboros also makes it easy to run different instances of the same
-application on the same server and load-balance them. In IP networks
-this requires at least some NAT trickery (since each application is tied
-to an interface:port). For instance, it takes no effort at all to run
-three different webserver implementations and load-balance flows between
-them for resiliency and seamless attack mitigation.
-
-The architecture still needs to be evaluated at scale. Ultimately, the
-only way to get the numbers, are to get a large (pre-)production
-deployment with real users.
-
-[[back to top](#top)]
-
-### <a name="namespaces">How do you manage the namespaces?</a>
-
-Ouroboros uses names that are attached to programs and processes. The
-layer API always uses hashes and the network maps hashes to addresses
-for location. This function is similar to a DNS lookup. The current
-implementation uses a DHT for that function in the ipcp-normal (the
-ipcp-udp uses a DynDNS server, the eth-llc and eth-dix use a local
-database with broadcast queries).
-
-But this leaves the question how we assign names. Currently this is
-ad-hoc, but eventually we will need an organized way for a global
-namespace so that application names are unique. If we want to avoid a
-central authority like ICANN, a distributed ledger would be a viable
-technology to implement this, similar to, for instance, namecoin.