Seserv workshop alissa cooper - net neutrality practices
In the context of net neutrality debates occuring around the world, a central question concerns the extent to which network operators should be free to manage certain Internet applications differently from others. Some stakeholders advocate for regulatory intervention on the basis that this sort of traffic management gives network operators too much power over which applications succeed or fail, while others argue for reliance on competition between network operators to discipline operator behavior. Yet evidence from the UK and the US suggests that the practical reality of how network operators have gone about managing traffic in the last half decade is not entirely consistent with expectations about the disciplining power of either regulatory or competitive forces in the marketplace. Understanding why Internet traffic ultimately gets managed in a particular way requires a deeper understanding of the interplay between technical, economic, political, and social dynamics confronting network operators.
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Seserv workshop alissa cooper - net neutrality practices
- 1. Internet Traffic Management in the UK Alissa Cooper Chief Computer Scientist
- 2. Discrimination differential treatment of different Internet traffic on the basis of application or content 2
- 3. Potential avenues for discrimination Blocking/filtering Prioritization/QoS Traffic shaping Interconnection Caching 3
- 4. Potential avenues for discrimination Blocking/filtering Prioritization/QoS Traffic shaping Interconnection Caching Operator’s initiative Negotiated with app provider No payment Payment Performance justification Revenue + performance justification Traffic management Everything else 4
- 5. Potential avenues for discrimination Blocking/filtering Prioritization/QoS Traffic shaping Interconnection Caching Operator’s initiative Negotiated with app provider No payment Payment Performance justification Revenue + performance justification Traffic management Everything else 5
- 6. Potentially discriminatory traffic management examples • Blocking/filtering – Preventing pure BitTorrent seeding • Traffic shaping – Allocating small % of peak bandwidth to identified P2P protocols – Limiting identified streaming video traffic to 1 Mbps at peak time 6
- 7. ISP 0 ISP 1 ISP 2 ISP 3 ISP 4 . . . ISP N 7
- 8. ISP 0 ISP 1 ISP 2 ISP 3 ISP 4 . . . ISP N 8
- 9. Competition Competition reduces operator’s incentive to discriminate because discrimination may drive customers to competitors 9
- 10. Competition Competition reduces operator’s incentive to discriminate because discrimination may drive customers to competitors 10
- 11. Urban Unbundled exchange BT Openreach access ISP backhaul ISP network Rural 11 BT Openreach access BT Wholesale ISP network backhaul
- 12. UK broadband connection shares 12
- 13. Hints of UK application shaping 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 BT Retail P2P Video Everything P2P, News Everywhere O2 P2P, Video O2 off-net P2P, News TalkTalk P2P Sky Sky off-net P2P, News Virgin P2P Virgin P2P off-net User-reported limits: App experiences 0.5% to 10% of headline speed. Weekdays afternoon to midnight, weekends mid-day to midnight. 13
- 14. Cost savings £££ Openreach access BT Wholesale ISP network backhaul 14
- 15. Cost savings £ Openreach access BT Wholesale ISP network backhaul 15
- 16. Price competition 16
- 17. TM platforms get entrenched 17
- 18. Why? • Cost savings • Price competition • Traffic management platforms get entrenched Sdf Competition has not safeguarded nondiscriminatory traffic management in the UK 18
- 19. BT TalkTalk Virgin Sky, O2 Everything smaller ISPs Everywhere 19
- 20. Hints of US app limitations FCC Enforcement FCC Rules 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 AT&T CenturyLin k P2P Comcast P2P Cox P2P Other cable Verizon Observed behavior consisted primarily of preventing pure BitTorrent seeding. 20
- 21. Conclusions • Traffic management strategies can be highly influenced by market structure • Competition does not necessarily prevent discriminatory traffic management • Designers of future traffic management technologies should recognize primacy of incentive structures into which they want to deploy 21
- 22. Questions? Alissa Cooper Center for Democracy & Technology acooper@cdt.org