Climate-proofing connectivity the only way we can

Being digitally connected is such a central feature of our lives that we don’t often stop to think about how it actually works — what it takes to send cat photos to our friends or access a daily newspaper online. Transient data, a combination of ones and zeros, pass through a surprisingly tangible physical infrastructure of fiber optic cables connecting centralized data servers — infrastructure that is vulnerable to an increasingly erratic and punishing climate.   

Our nation’s servers and data centers are often collateral damage in powerful natural disaster events. In 2018, Hurricane Maria wiped out the communications infrastructure in Puerto Rico. Millions of Puerto Ricans were cut off from the rest of the world and deprived of their fundamental need to communicate with others. To this day, thousands of Puerto Ricans remain without a reliable internet connection. Unfortunately, large-scale climate disasters are becoming more frequent and more dangerous. They not only deprive people of their fundamental needs, they impede our very ability to coordinate a response, while costing billions of dollars a year in lost global economic activity. 

The reality of digital disconnection was brought into sharper focus during the COVID-19 pandemic. Fundamental aspects of our daily lives shifted online instantly, from schooling to remote work to health care. And yet, in too many places, the system was unable to accommodate the magnitude of need.     

Now the resilience of our communications infrastructure is on the agenda as world leaders meet at the United Nations Climate Change Conference this week and Congress looks to pass its $1 trillion infrastructure bill. Hundreds of millions of dollars likely will be allocated to burying fiber optic cables deeper below the seabed or waterproofing servers. But such tactics amount to Band-Aid solutions, sure to require constant adjustments. There is a better avenue forward: true wireless, decentralized peer-to-peer networking. Rather than mitigate against certain infrastructure damage, this is our chance to build a more robust type of connectivity and revolutionize the future of communications. 

 The challenge in keeping the world connected is the highly centralized nature of our existing architecture. Proportionately few powerful internet service providers have large servers that act as hubs of connectivity through which the rest of the nodes in the network connect. When a hub becomes congested, it can weaken access for everyone else. If the hub suffers a failure, a disproportionate number of nodes will fail too, paralyzing the system. 

As long as our connectivity is based on a centralized model, it will be vulnerable and costly. No amount of fortification can fix the inherent risk. So as we debate infrastructure at home and distribute money to fight climate change abroad, it is the opportune moment to rethink our ability to connect and communicate regardless of our circumstances.  

If centralization is the problem, what does a decentralized solution look like? We must study and invest in decentralizing technologies that flatten the network and put the power back in the hands of many, rather than the few. That enables direct connection among nodes, rather than being filtered through hubs. That supports the formation of a network through pooled connectivity resources — providing them to the collective for use by other nodes as needed and realizing the same benefits in turn. And that saves costs by enhancing what already exists.   

In a decentralized model, no node is fully dependent on another, just on the network as a whole. In other words, there is less dependency on a given physical infrastructure — if one connection point is not available, nodes can automatically link to others.  

The network, for its part, is resilient against any individual node being compromised. A single point of failure can only have a limited impact. There are no choke points. Similarly, congestion is no longer a concern. The network can grow exponentially without concern that one node is being disproportionately taxed and slowing the others down. With a more even distribution of connectivity points, we greatly reduce vulnerability.

In a natural disaster, connectivity is not a luxury; it’s a lifeline. As climate change predictably threatens a broader geographic expanse and its impacts grow more devastating, we must see our connectivity as the critical infrastructure that is. At the same time, we must not be bound by our existing hardware. The path forward does not require expensive yet incremental steps to bolster our vulnerable hubs. It requires decentralization of the network overall. We must reduce our vulnerability by increasing connection points and therefore building redundancy. So when the next storm hits, we won’t be measuring how deep the cables need to be or where to relocate the data centers; we’ll be thankful our decentralized internet architecture is still standing and our ability to communicate has been preserved. 

Stanislav Shalunov is founder and CEO of Clostra, a San Francisco-based company that uses machine learning, deep learning and peer-to-peer networking to create software solutions. He was integral to building the architecture of the internet, having developed LEDBAT, a protocol that transports up to 20 percent of total internet traffic, and the peer-to-peer platform BitTorrrent. Clostra launched Fireside Messenger, a smartphone app.