¿Has vuelto a algún libro de los que estudiaste en la Universidad?

En la era del ADSL y las comunicaciones ópticas, ayer vimos en varios sitios cosas curiosas sobre el ancho de banda que se puede alcanzar usando palomas mensajeras y caracoles.
Me hizo recordar el que es sin duda el mejor libro que me tocó estudiar en la escuela de Teleco de Madrid: Computer Networks (ISBN 0-13-066102-3) de Andrew S. Tanenbaum. En él ya se decía hace muchos años que nunca hay que desdeñar el ancho de banda que supone una ranchera a 100Km/h cargada de cintas de Back-up.
Es curioso que es el único libro de la escuela al que he vuelto (varias veces!) desde que acabé la carrera y me gano la vida con esta profesión. A pesar de los avances en este campo, este libro envejece muy, muy bien.

Como curisidad comentar también que A. Tanenbaum era profesor de Linus Torvalds en Holanda, y que fue a partir de evolucionar un sistema operativo del profesor que el alumno empezó con lo que hoy conocemos como Linux.


Actualización: Gracias a un amable lector tengo la cita del libro:

2.2 Guided Transmission Media

The purpose of the physical layer is to transport a raw bit stream from one machine to another. Various physical media can be used for the actual transmission. Each one has its own niche in terms of bandwidth, delay, cost, and ease of installation and maintenance. Media are roughly grouped into guided media, such as copper wire and fiber optics, and unguided media, such as radio and lasers through the air. We will look at all of these in the following sections.

2.2.1 Magnetic Media

One of the most common ways to transport data from one computer to another is to write them onto magnetic tape or removable media (e.g., recordable DVDs), physically transport the tape or disks to the destination machine, and read them back in again. Although this method is not as sophisticated as using a geosynchronous communication satellite, it is often more cost effective, especially for applications in which high bandwidth or cost per bit transported is the key factor.

A simple calculation will make this point clear. An industry standard Ultrium tape can hold 200 gigabytes. A box 60 x 60 x 60 cm can hold about 1000 of these tapes, for a total capacity of 200 terabytes, or 1600 terabits (1.6 petabits). A box of tapes can be delivered anywhere in the United States in 24 hours by Federal Express and other companies. The effective bandwidth of this transmission is 1600 terabits/86,400 sec, or 19 Gbps. If the destination is only an hour away by road, the bandwidth is increased to over 400 Gbps. No computer network can even approach this.

For a bank with many gigabytes of data to be backed up daily on a second machine (so the bank can continue to function even in the face of a major flood or earthquake), it is likely that no other transmission technology can even begin to approach magnetic tape for performance. Of course, networks are getting faster, but tape densities are increasing, too.

If we now look at cost, we get a similar picture. The cost of an Ultrium tape is around $40 when bought in bulk. A tape can be reused at least ten times, so the tape cost is maybe $4000 per box per usage. Add to this another $1000 for shipping (probably much less), and we have a cost of roughly $5000 to ship 200 TB. This amounts to shipping a gigabyte for under 3 cents. No network can beat that. The moral of the story is:

Nevnever underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of tapes hurtling down the highway