Tuesday 20 May 2008

The real purpose of non-neutral networks

There is a problem with the internet as it currently stands. The service providers say there is a problem with serving video content and peer-to-peer traffic, so they want to have someone (preferably both the consumer and content provider) pay extra for "premium" service and prioritised delivery. Our current world is called a neutral network, and this alternate fantasy is generally called "tiered networking". But if the problem is that demand for high-volume services is increasing, then even a tiered network will choke eventually, and then we're back to where we started, but with some expensive service to boot.

So the real purpose of tiered networking is not to guarantee delivery of "premium" content - the service providers can't guarantee that at all, if their infrastructure is as heavily bogged down as they say. The real purpose must be to eliminate "undesirable" traffic, and it's the service providers who get to decide what is "undesirable".

Mokalus of Borg

PS - I don't want my service provider deciding which of my requests is worthy.
PPS - That's not what I'm paying for.

2 comments:

Erin Marie said...

Sorry, I couldn't hear what this post was about over the sound of my NERD ALERT going off...

John said...

Someday I'll find a way to disable that nerd alert, and then you'll be sorry.