Tuesday, March 3, 2015

Will IoT Services Use Internet, or Managed Networks?

It remains to be seen whether U.S. network neutrality rules will survive court challenges, and what modifications ultimately will be made to any surviving portions of the rules.

Also unknown are paths of development for future services--including many Internet of Things apps with high reliability requirements--that can be created and offered by Internet service providers and telcos, as managed--not Internet--services.

But it might not be the case that self-driving cars use communications covered by network neutrality, any more than some medical monitoring or other sensor services might. A good argument can be made that such services will be supported by quality-assured networks, not the unmanaged Internet.

"There are some services that simply require a different level of connectivity," said Suri. He believes there are some networks that "you can't do in a best effort network," naming driverless cars and healthcare communications with doctors and hospitals connecting to patients. "You need this differentiated quality of service," he said.

No doubt, ISPs will have financial incentives to create managed services in such cases, and thus would not be covered under any surviving network neutrality rules.

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