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--- gridscape [2013/11/12 01:43]
storyteller
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storyteller [LOCAL GRIDS]
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 System Grids are made up of all planetary Grids and other local Grids within a star’s gravity well and connected by mass, laser, ra-dio, and other transceivers. As such, the sys-tem Grid is “The” Grid within that system. If a planetary or national Grid is the only Grid in a system, it is by default the system Grid.
-==== LOCAL GRIDS ====
+{{tag>grid dw}}
-Local Grids or planetary Grids, sometimes di-vided into state or national Grids, are defined primarily by jurisdiction or ownership. It is at the local level that the vast majority of the in-frastructure of the Grid is found. Everything above this level is made up from connected local Grids, and everything below this level comes together to create the local Grids.
-The local Grids are where all of the work, all of the fun, all of the action of the Grid takes place. While the capacities and pro-tocols of individual Grids can vary wildly, all Grids include separate regions devoted to the major data formats: data, comm, virtuality, and DV. Each of these subnets is interlaced with the others and partially compatible with them. These regions, or sectors, can be orga-nized or interfaced differently across different Grids, and some Grids include additional sec-tors devoted to special purposes and func-tions. Every Grid, however, includes sectors optimized to handle the four basic infor-mation formats.
-The comm sector provides text, voice, and video messaging services for anyone with the appropriate hardware. Digital wiretap-ping, interception of transmissions, and shad-ow form relay all use comm sector domains and hardware, which make up the backbone of the Grid. In a sense, the comm sector forms the sewers, phone lines, and cable systems of the Grid.
-The data sector is the Grid’s infor-mation warehouse. Like a giant library, the data sector stores everything from patents to novels, political analysis to sports statistics, census data to schematics for technology ob-solete through bleeding edge. This is usually the largest sector of any Grid and tends to be cluttered and crowded. A set of protocols called the Alexandrine Reform were imple-mented during the Fusion age to bring some sense of order to the cataloguing and organi-zation of data sectors. Even so, much of the information found in any data sector is worth-less junk, garbage dumped onto the Grid by cranks, salespeople, and amateurs.
-The virtuality sector features graphics-heavy, rendered-on-the-fly, continuously up-dated real-time environments. Virtual settings of all kinds are found here, from the seediest data fringes to the most advanced scientific simulations.
-Finally, the DV sector encompasses vid-eo, holo, and audio material of every sort. It is heaven for the committed couch potato, but offers little in the way of useful data for any purpose other than entertainment and pas-sive education.
-===== NETWORKS =====
-Networks are loosely affiliated groups of do-mains that serve a common goal or interest. The Grid itself links these networks together; interested corporations, organizations, individ-uals, and governments set up and maintain their networks themselves. Types of networks include academic, access service, corporate, financial, government, military, open, opera-tional, and ultrasecure.
-Academic networks are run by colleg-es, universities, libraries, and public access think-tanks for the benefit of their students and staff. They contain a variety of powerful computing equipment, excellent reference functions, and an open, carefree atmosphere of exploration and recovery. Generally, these institutions limit access to individuals with some connection to themselves, but their al-most universal lack of in-depth security makes them popular targets for illegal use of their supercomputers, high-speed access, and depth of data.
-Access service networks set up and maintain special interest groups, often with very narrow fields of discussion, such as exotic birdwatching, the politics of a particular area, or extremely low temperature physics. More often, the topic is sex, drugs, or gaming. Such networks also sometimes set up anonymous meeting areas for mercenaries and their em-ployers, thieves and fences, and others desir-ing very private transactions. Access service networks usually have good security.
-Corporate networks serve the interests of businesses large and small. These networks are designed to serve the employees and cus-tomers of the business in question, allowing them to buy and sell goods, services, and con-tracts, track projects and business information, assign work, and so on. Corporate networks generally have only ordinary security, though specific domains or nodes within a network—those pertaining to especially sensitive infor-mation or operations— may have much better security in place.
-Financial networks exist solely to per-form and govern financial transactions. They are extremely security conscious and is almost always illegal to hack or interfere with them in any way.
-Government networks tend to be gray, poorly maintained, and often well behind the technology curve. The idiosyncratic structure and sheer data volume of these networks of-ten makes users and gridpilots alike throw up their hands in disgust. Hidden beneath all of that red tape, virtual dust, and malaise, how-ever, can be some treasures worth digging for. A skilled and patient data miner can find valuable information about anything from top secret research and projects to financial and personal information on politicians and public servants. While general security in government networks tend to lax and outdated, the juiciest files are often protected by good or better defenses.
-Military networks carry privileged information on troops and logistics, as well as tactical, geographical, and order-of-battle data. They are tightly controlled and often require special hardware and software to access. Se-cure as military networks are, however, mili-tary commands use ultrasecure networks to hold the most sensitive intelligence and to monitor and control weapons and defenses.
-Open networks are the front doors of most other types of networks. Anyone can access these networks with anything for the dumbest GID to the hottest new gridcaster, but open networks are usually limited to basic Grid access, catalogues, sales information, message boards, and so on.
-Operational networks run factories, air– and spaceports, and other complex hard-ware. Because they control such important systems and have such potential for havoc, operational networks are usually isolated from the Grid and other networks, with only mini-mal connections to government or corporate networks and the comm sector.
-Ultrasecure networks handle the most important and sensitive traffic on the Grid: mil-itary ordinance control, classified intelligence and research, and the most sensitive financial information of major corporations and banks. While it is possible to intercept data from the-se networks, it is little more than meaningless junk without state-of-the-art decryption hard-ware and software. Furthermore, codes and protocols are changed regularly. As the name would suggest, ultrasecure networks boast the very best of defenses. Aside from murderous software defenses, ultrasecure networks are constantly monitored by teams of crack gridpilots who detect and nullify any threat very quickly. Of course, like operational net-works, ultrasecure are usually only minimally connected to outside networks and the rest of the Grid, often requiring that a potential hack-er gain access from a specific controlled location before even attempting to break into them. Only the very best gridrunners, usually working in concert with teams of others and even AI assistance have any hope of cracking ultrasecure networks, and the penalties for doing so are severe.
-The above types of networks are found on most Grids, but many other types exist. Religious networks are common in areas where one or more religions are popular, and AI sec-tors are found on some Grids. Alien Grids also have specialized networks; mechalus Grids include cybermedical networks, and fraal Grids usually maintain mindwalking grids devoted to that art and its interface with their specialized technologies.
-===== DOMAINS =====
-Domains are the main building blocks of Grid interaction. Each domain varies from a single Grid space of a few files or databases to an entire network. The owner of the domain can customize it to suit its needs or its fancy. Individual domains, and indeed, separate nodes and rooms within each domain can be functional, elaborate, cluttered, or sparse, but always following the rules and parameters set by the owner of the domain.
-Domains can be thought of as the “towns” of the Grid. Where the neighbor-hoods and buildings within a town are linked by geographical proximity, the locations (or nodes) within a domain are linked by virtue of a common Grid address. All locations within a domain have Grid ad-dresses that are derived from the Grid address of their do-main, just as the buildings in a town all share postal codes. Like a town, a domain has its own administration and sys-tems, and the users or owners of nodes within a domain have to follow the rules set forth by the domain’s administration.
-Unlike a civil administration, however, a domain administrator can actually change “reality” within her do-main. A domain’s administrator can set the appearance and behavior of objects, programs, and shadows within the do-main subject only to the limitations of her skills and her do-main’s systems. A domain administrator can set the rules and restrictions of the domain to be immutable to everyone but herself (or another administrator), or she set up any kind of hierarchy of permissions she likes to allow users and visitors to modify local restrictions.
-The variety of domains on the Grid is all but infinite. All it takes is a computer with the right hard-ware and software, a Grid address, and a connection to the Grid to set up one’s own do-main, and many people do just that. (See the “A Domain of One’s Own” sidebar.) Thus, it is difficult to categorize all of the places one can visit on the Grid. Generally (but not always), any of the types of networks described above are within single domains. Following below are just a sample of the most common and popular types of private domains.
-Access Providers are huge, sprawling networks that cater to the Grid user without either to gear or the interest to set up his own domain. They provide a customizable (within certain limits) node for each subscriber, which acts as a Grid home for its owner. The services offered by access providers range from the most basic (an access point node) to personalized news and information, exclusive entertainment, to virtually any kind of service or good that can be offered over the Grid. Most access providers offer their services for free in return for subjecting subscribers to varying levels of advertising, but the more content-rich ones charge monthly fees.
-AI Havens are difficult to find and extremely difficult for anyone other than AIs to access. These mysterious blue boxes, as they appear on the Grid, are the Grid homes and destinations of artificial intelligences. Rumors depict the inside of blue boxes as featureless fog banks, or swirling seas of data, or incomprehensible cityscapes of hurdling, titanic constructs.
-Code Salons are the homes and the meeting places of the digerati—the tech-savvy Grid elite who spend their entire lives on the Grid. Finding and gaining access to a Code Salon is purposely difficult, an entrance exam for those who would see themselves account-ed as the masters of the Grid. Within their pri-vate havens, the digerati may engage in almost any activity that can be conducted on the Grid, but gather most often to trade or show off their software, their skills, or the data they have acquired on their runs.
-Content Providers include domains that offer entertainment, news, information, and other on-Grid services. The varieties of content on the Grid are mind-boggling, from simple text news reports, to interactive instructional programs, to completely realistic (or better) virtual games, simulations, and so on ad infinitum. Many content providers offer limited access to their material for free to attract customers, and then offer more complete, higher quality, or otherwise simply more products either by subscription or purchase. Content providers generally try to be very easy to find and access, their advertisements and promotions often outnumbering all other types of grid messages one receives.
-Data Fringes are the dark domains where one goes to find whatever one is not supposed to have. By definition, the business that goes on the fringes is either illegal or objectionable, or both. Unsavory contacts, stolen data, restricted software, illegal and taboo media of all sorts trade virtual hands in data fringes. Such places are necessarily hard to find, requiring either grid skills or contacts to locate.
-Portal Services have grown up out of the directories and search engines of previous eras. In the age of the interstellar Grid, they are even more indispensable than ever. Not only do most portal services maintain huge databanks of Grid addresses, but they also compete to offer the fastest and “smartest” tools to find what you’re looking for. Most portal providers offer their basic services for free (though often wrapped up in a layer of advertisements for sponsors), and then provide more advanced services for purchase or subscription. The very best portal services offer the paying customer access to exclusive directories, dedicated search agents, and more.
-===== NODES =====
-“Node” is a generic term for any single, specific virtual location. If domains are the towns and cities of the Grid, nodes are the buildings and even the rooms. Nodes are always within domains, and all nodes within a domain share the same Grid address prefix, as described in Domains, above.
-Nodes are the most specific, discrete locations in the Grid. Everything within a node can be thought of as being in the same virtual room, and gaining access to a node by getting through its Portal allows a user to access any files, applications, or other virtual objects within it (although specific items may re-quire Permissions). Domains may have one node or many. Each node has its own Grid address within the domain, which can be the target of a gridlink and can have its own defenses, applications, links, and so on. Shadows must be in the same node to see, speak or at-tack one another without special applications or abilities.

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