anternet

English

Etymology

Blend of ant +‎ internet Coined by Balaji Prabhakar, a professor of electrical engineering and computer science at Stanford University.

Noun

anternet (plural not attested)

  1. The means by which ants communicate with each other, analogous to the TCP/IP algorithm that the internet uses to control the flow of data.
    • 2012, The Ant Internet, IEEE Spectrum:
      Long before researchers invented the Internet, ants invented something kind of like an anternet, and the two networks work pretty much the same way.
    • 2013, Stanford course explores social networking in the 18th century – and in nature, Stanford News
      She and Balaji Prabhakar, a professor of electrical engineering and of computer science, last year published a paper showing that the ants' "anternet" algorithm follows the same rules as the protocols that regulate data traffic congestion on the Internet.
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