[imager]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/ee/Homing_pigeon.jpg/180px-Homing_pigeon.jpg[/imager]In computing, IP over Avian Carriers is the hypothetical carrying of Internet Protocol (IP) traffic by birds such as homing pigeons. IP over Avian Carriers was initially described in RFC 1149, a humorous Request for Comments document issued by the Internet Engineering Task Force that was written by D. Waitzman and released on April Fool's Day 1990. It is one of several April 1 RFCs.
On April 28, 2001, just over a decade later, IP over Avian Carriers was actually implemented by the Bergen Linux User Group. They sent 9 packets over a distance of approximately 5km (3 miles), each carried by an individual pigeon and containing one ping (ICMP Echo Request), and they received 4 responses. With a packet loss ratio of 55%, and a response time ranging from 3000 seconds to over 6000 seconds, IP over Avian Carriers seems unlikely to be adopted more widely as a data-link method on the Internet.
Waitzman described an improvement of his protocol in RFC 2549, IP over Avian Carriers with Quality of Service (April 1, 1999).
Advances in flash memory technology mean that data transfer over avian carriers may have advantages over traditional data transfer wherever high latency can be tolerated in exchange for high bandwidth, possibly as a sneakernet. For example, over a 30 mile distance a single pigeon may be able to carry tens of gigabytes of data in around an hour, which on a purely bandwidth basis compares very favorably to current ADSL standards, even when accounting for lost drives. However, it is unlikely that the Internet Protocol would be used for this purpose.
