Traffic and Net Neutrality

1966 Words4 Pages

BUS 9100
Roger Naggar
05/13/14

Net Neutrality
An Open Internet vs. Internet Service Providers

Net Neutrality is a real hot button issue right now and for good reason. It is the principal foundation of the internet as we know it. Data that is free flowing and unsusceptible to throttling or censoring. The traffic from, say, Netflix gets the exact same treatment as traffic generated by streaming your favorite Pandora station or streaming yourself playing a new video game to thousands on Twitch. However, there is a threat this looking to change all of this. That threat is your local big box ISPs such as Comcast, Verizon, Time Warner Cable, and AT&T.
But before we get into the weeds of this issue, let’s start by defining Net Neutrality. The common definition, as coined by Columbia University Law Professor Tim Wu in in his 2003 paper, “Network Neutrality, Broadband Discrimination”
“Network neutrality is best defined as a network design principle. The idea is that a maximally useful public information network aspires to treat all content, sites, and platforms equally. This allows the network to carry every form of information and support every kind of application. The principle suggests that information networks are often more valuable when they are less specialized – when they are a platform for multiple uses, present and future. (For people who know more about network design, what is just described is similar to the "end-to-end" design principle).”

This is further complicated by the fact that more than one Internet Service Provider is normally involved during most Internet communications. The way that the public Internet works is that different ISPs will “peer” with each other to route traffic. In many cases the peering is free under ...

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... course support, all the while allowing consumers greater choice by ensuring monopolies and oligopolies do not prevail in the market, something Drucker would of course support as it would force companies to retain customers based on their merit and users’ experience rather than the size and influence of a company.

References http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2014/03/25/att-complains-it-needs-more-money-for-infrastructure-upgrades-no-it-doesnt/ http://arstechnica.com/business/2014/03/netflix-users-on-verizon-and-att-get-raw-deal-have-little-reason-for-hope/ http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/28/technology/28broadband.html http://www.wired.com/2010/12/fcc-order/ http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-05-151A1.pdf http://www.infoworld.com/t/net-neutrality/level-3-accuses-comcastother-isps-of-deliberately-harming-broadband-service-241999

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