It’s James Clerk Maxwell’s Birthday

Monday, June 13th is the birthday of James Clerk Maxwell, the inspiration for our network emulators!

James Clerk Maxwell was born 13 June 1831. Among his many contributions to physics, James proposed a thought experiment called “Maxwell’s demon” that suggests that the Second Law of Thermodynamics could be violated.

In the thought experiment, a demon controls a small door between two chambers of gas. As individual gas molecules approach the door, the demon quickly opens and shuts the door so that fast molecules pass into the other chamber, while slow molecules remain in the first. Because faster molecules are hotter, the demon’s behavior causes one chamber to warm up as the other cools, thus decreasing entropy and violating the Second Law of Thermodynamics. (Source: Wikipedia)

Our Maxwell network emulator performs a similar function to J C Maxwell’s demon; instead of intercepting gas molecules, we intercept packets. Instead of letting the fast ones through, we only let packets through that meet certain criteria. We also modify those packets based on other criteria.

Thanks for your idea James!