"Network neutrality," believe it or not, was among the marketing trends that consultant Gini Dietrich thought in October 2010 would highlight 2011. She was dead on about some things, correct about the direction of others, but some would argue missed the mark about one or two, including network neutrality.Among the clear correct calls, she argued that "content, content, content" would be key. "All companies should become media companies," she said.
Some of the other trends weren't so pronounced during the year, though partly correct in terms of direction. Dietrich mentioned heightened Federal Trade Commission scrutiny of the "blogging" world. That was correct to an extent, but has not, and some would argue will not, take a further step.
Dietrich argued that "next" in 2011 would be rules "around ethics and how we approach traditional journalists and bloggers." That didn't happen, and some would argue, will not.
Some of us would argue that Dietrich flatly misunderstood the "network neutrality" issue, both in timing and implications. She argued that "being able to write a blog post at 6:00 in the morning and post it two hours later and letting it reach audiences around the world for free will be gone." That's a common argument by supporters of strong versions of network neutrality, but is mistaken. The Federal Communications Commission has operated for years on some fundamental "Internet Freedoms principles" that enshrine consumer access to all lawful applications. Internet Freedom principles
"Consumers and innovators have a right to send and receive lawful traffic--to go where they want, say what they want, experiment with ideas--commercial and social, and use the devices of their choice," the Federal Communications Commission clearly has said. "The rules thus prohibit the blocking of lawful
content, apps, services, and the connection of devices to the network." In other words, non-blocking of lawful content already is policy, and already has been enforced by the Commission, on the couple of occasions when it even became an issue.
But there is another important issue that people become confused about, namely the need to manage traffic on any network to ensure the best possible performance for all users, especially when networks get congested.
"The rules recognize that broadband providers need meaningful flexibility to manage their networks to deal with congestion, security, and other issues," the FCC continues to believe. Some people have experienced "all circuits are busy now, please try your call again later" messages when trying to make a landline telephone call.
More have simply found they are unable, from time to time, to make a mobile call, either. Those are examples of lawful network management. When the network gets overwhelmed with admission requests, it simply blocks some attempts until the congestion is alleviated. That is neither illegal nor illogical.
Much of the confusion about network neutrality flows from not distinguishing between the "unimpeded access to lawful apps" and the "need to manage a network for congestion." Some network neutrality supporters argue that an ISP should be forbidden to manage its traffic demand in any way to optimize network performance. That can have several unpleasant implications for end users.
Congestion management on the Internet, or any Internet Protocol network (and all networks are becoming IP networks), typically involves some sort of blocking or delayed response at times of congestion. The networks "slow down" and some connection requests simply "time out." If ISPs cannot establish any priorities for traffic, then everything randomly slows down.
That isn't a major problem for email or web surfing, which will simply be "slower." Random lags in packet arrival are highly disruptive for video and voice, and both media types will be carried on all-IP networks, everywhere, in the near future. In principle, the best end user experience would be provided if, under congestion, priority is given to voice and video bits, while email, web surfing and software update packets are delayed.
Strict network neutrality rules would prevent that practice. There are some business practices issues of concern, such as ISPs favoring their own content over content supplied by rivals.
But that already happens, all over the Internet, as content delivery networks such as those operated by Akamai optimize content for faster delivery. It is not "equal treatment." That is the whole point. Akamai and other content delivery networks charge content providers money to expedite delivery of their packets. There are potential legitimate restraint of trade issues posed by packet prioritization. But content providers do this today, all the time.
In the future, when all traffic is carried over IP networks, there will be clear end user issues. Are you willing to pay for voice or video services that randomly fall apart, or do you expect some reasonable quality standards? Without packet prioritization, it will not be possible to ensure that the voice or video services a customer has paid for can actually be delivered with minimum quality levels. Calls will become garbled and then suddenly disconnect and video will freeze.
The point is that end user access to all lawful applications is not the issue. Whether quality measures can be taken, especially for latency-sensitive applications such as voice, online gaming, video or video conferencing and many transaction processes related to shopping and banking, is the issue.
The other issue is that all IP networks are shared. So what should an ISP do about the fact that a very small percentage of heavy users can disrupt quality of service for the 97 percent of other users who have to share a network? Right now, the way ISPs deal with the issue is to set a quota for total usage, and then throttle the few heavy users when they exceed the quota of usage. It's a crude way of managing heavy usage.
Some would argue the better approach is to allow users to decide whether they'd rather pay some premium so that, under heavy congestion, they'd get priority access, much as content and application providers now can pay Akamai to expedite packet delivery.
The confusion about network neutrality is widespread, and for good reasons. But the issue is not a matter of content access or freedom of speech. All networks have to be managed. All networks can become congested. The issue is how to preserve end user experience when that happens. Some network neutrality proponents say "do nothing." Few network engineers or architects would agree that is a wise choice.
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