The corporate toll on the Internet

To understand why critics worry about the future of the Internet in the absence of what they call network neutrality, it helps to look at the underlying philosophy of the ubiquitous network. Engineers are fond of describing the Internet as a "dumb network," a designation that's meant to be a compliment. Unlike other large communications systems -- phone or cable networks -- the Internet was designed without a specific application in mind. The engineers who built the network didn't really know what it would be used for, so they kept it profoundly simple, making sure that the network performed very few functions of its own. Where other networks use a kind of "intelligence" to define what is and what isn't allowed on a system, the various machines that make up the Internet don't usually examine or act upon data; they just push it where it needs to go.

The smallest meaningful bit of information on the Internet is called a "packet"; anything you send or receive on the network, from an e-mail to an iTunes song, is composed of many packets. On the Internet, all packets are equal. Any one packet hurtling over the pipe to my house is treated more or less the same way as any other packet, regardless of where it comes from or what kind of information -- video, voice or just text -- it represents. If I were to download a large Microsoft Word e-mail attachment at the same time that I were to stream a funny clip from Salon's Video Dog, the Internet won't make any effort to give the video clip more space on my line than the document, even if I may want it to. If the connection is too slow to accommodate both files at the same time, my video might slow down and sputter as the Word file hogs up the line -- to the network, bits are bits, and a video is no more important than a Word file.

The notion that the Internet shouldn't perform special functions on network data is known as the "end-to-end principle." The idea, first outlined by computer scientists Jerome Saltzer, David Clark, and David Reed in 1984, is widely seen as a key to the network's success. It is precisely because the Internet doesn't have any intelligence of its own that it's been so useful for so many different kinds of things; the network works consistently and evenly for everyone, and, therefore, everyone is free to add their own brand of intelligence to it.

Today's largest broadband firms, though, aren't accustomed to running dumb networks built on the end-to-end principle. AT&T ran the phone network at its own behest -- and the company usually benefited from it. Historically, in the telecom industry, "there's been this instinct toward control," says Tim Wu, a law professor at Columbia and a co-author of "Who Controls the Internet?" At firms like AT&T and Verizon, both of which have roots in the monopolistic old AT&T, there's now an effort afoot to reengineer parts of the Internet by introducing more intelligence to manage and control data.

One firm that has been a vocal proponent of prioritizing data is Cisco, the giant network equipment company whose products currently power much of the Internet. "We think that as people use their broadband connections more intensively, the need to manage traffic is going to increase," says Jeff Campbell, director of government affairs at Cisco. The company has designed an array of products that allows service providers like AT&T and Verizon to scrutinize everything on their networks extremely closely. One Cisco brochure (PDF) touts a system called the Cisco Service Control Engine, which is described as "a deep packet inspection engine that helps enable service providers to identify, classify, monitor, and control traffic" on the network. "Deep packet inspection" refers to the practice of looking at each slice of data on the network and determining exactly what kind of information it is -- whether it's part of an e-mail message, or a bit of a video file you're trading over Bittorrent, or perhaps a New York Times news story on the Web.

After examining each packet and deciding which user asked for it, where it's coming from, and what application it's meant for, the Cisco system allows network operators to assign various network privileges to the data. During a time of network congestion, data that is "delay-sensitive" -- like part of a voice phone call or a streaming video -- can be moved along the network in a hurry, while packets that represent less urgent data -- peer-to-peer file transfers, or downloads of e-mail attachments -- might be put on a slow lane. In this sort of network, were I to download a video file and a Word file at the same time, the network would notice it, and may decide to slow down the Word file so that the video file plays smoothly.

Many Web entrepreneurs and network policy experts think that giving priority to some traffic is good for the Internet. In February, Mark Cuban, the billionaire media entrepreneur and sports-team owner, posted a rant on his blog decrying the current state of network traffic management, and calling on broadband firms to offer high-speed service for some kinds of data. "There are some basic facts about the Internet that remind me of driving on the 405 in Los Angeles," Cuban wrote. "Traffic jams happen. There is no end in sight for those traffic jams. The traffic jams are worse at certain times of the day. Whether it's the 405 or the Internet." If we use carpool lanes to allow some cars to bypass traffic on our freeways, Cuban asked, why not add HOV lanes to the Internet, so that media that needs fast service can get to its destination more quickly?

Cuban is a co-founder of HDNet, a high-definition cable and satellite TV network, and has a particular interest in seeing the Internet give special treatment to certain files. In fact, the new Internet schemes are specifically designed to boost audio and video on the network. If your Word file slows down for a half-second during download, you're not going to notice it; but if your Internet phone call has a half-second interruption, it would annoy you to no end.

Opponents of neutrality regulations say other applications currently being designed for the Internet will only work well if the network is improved. For instance, imagine if you were watching an Internet TV broadcast of a basketball game that allowed you to switch to different camera angles during the game. That program would be only useful, says Campbell of Cisco, if the camera angles appeared instantly, not seconds after you switched. Other advocates point to new medical diagnostic devices with which hospitals can monitor the status of patients at home; in that situation, it would seem obvious to give such traffic priority.

"I guess we could leave the Internet in the dark ages and leave everything as an unprioritized, unorganized mass where all bits are treated the same," says Campbell. "But we think good network management technology will improve overall performance and consumers will have a better experience in the long term."

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