The Technical is Political____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Access to an openInformation environment

Overview

• Models of communication

• The stakes of architecture• Political and economic

• Pressures on end-to-end

• State of play at the physical layer

• Outline of issues at the logical and content layers

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Network Architecture

• Models of Communications• Broadcast: one-way, controlled

infrastructure, intelligent network, simple endpoints. Information flow controlled primarily at the center

• Telephone: switched, intelligent core, simple endpoints. Information flow end-to-end, but only within parameters tightly controlled by core

• Internet: Intelligent endpoints, simple network. Content and logic end-to-end

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Communicative Functions in a Communications Channel

Stimuli

Collection

Relevancefiltration

Accreditaton

Noise/Signal Conversion Intelligence Production

Conceptualmapping

Processingmeaning

Articulation

Message Production

Medium choice(form)

Coding for mediumand channel

Transmission

Reception medium

Transmission medium (form)

Transmission channel(physical layer)

Reception

Recipient’s noise/signal conversion

Intelligence reproduction/ decoding

Reply(if any)

Channel choice

Accreditation

Filtration

Perceived by sender as reply through the channel (dialogue)

Perceived by senderas stimulus (serialmonologues)

Comprehension/ assimilation

Communicative Functions in a Broadcast Model

Broadcasters

End users

Distribution ChannelOwners

Funding providers

Collection

Relevancefiltration

Accreditaton

Noise/Signal Conversion

Intelligence Production

Conceptualmapping

Processingmeaning

ArticulationTransmission

Transmission medium (form)

Transmission channel(physical layer)

Accreditation

Filtration

Medium choice

Channel choice

Coding for mediumand channel

Message Production

Regulators

Reception medium

Reception

Recipient’s noise/signal conversion

Comprehension/ assimilation

Intelligence reproduction/ decoding

Reply(if any)

Communicative Functions in a Telephony Model

End users(recipients)

Collection

Relevancefiltration

Accreditaton

Noise/Signal Conversion Intelligence Production

Conceptualmapping

Processingmeaning

Accreditation

Filtration

Medium choice

Channel choice

Coding for mediumand channel

Message Production

Reception medium

Reception

Recipient’s noise/signal conversion

Comprehension/ assimilation

Intelligence reproduction/ decoding Reply

Transmission channel(physical layer)

Transmission

Transmission medium (form)

Articulation

End-Users(senders)

Carriers

Communicative Functions in an Internet Model

End users(recipients)

Collection

Relevancefiltration

Accreditaton

Noise/Signal Conversion

Intelligence Production

Conceptualmapping

Processingmeaning

Accreditation Filtration

Medium choice

Channel choice

Coding for mediumand channel

Message Production

Reception medium

ReceptionRecipient’s noise/signal conversion Comprehension

/ assimilationIntelligence reproduction/ decoding

Reply

Transmission channel(physical layer; open logical layer)

Transmission

Transmission medium (form)

Articulation

End-Users(senders)

Carriers& ISPs

Reply

Reply

Reply

Broadcast vs. Internet Models: Aggregated Effects

Program Producers

Broadcasters

End Users

NetworkServiceProviders

End Users

The Stakes

• Democracy• Jonas of IDT: “Sure I want to be the

biggest telecom company in the world, but it's just a commodity. I want to be able to form opinion. By controlling the pipe, you can eventually get control of the content”

• Everyone a pamphleteer or printing press

• Power of media & advertisers• Diversity of views and voices

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The Stakes

• Democracy

• Autonomy• Cisco’s QoS control policy routers“you could restrict the incoming push

broadcasts as well as subscribers’ outgoing access to the push site to discourage its use. At the same time, you could promote your own or partner’s services with full speed features to encourage adoption of your services”

• Who defines the window through which one trains one’s eyes on the prize; whose prize?

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The Stakes

• Democracy

• Autonomy

• Innovation• Lessig, Baldwin, Reed

• E.g., voice/video over IP implemented through desktop software

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The Stakes

• Democracy

• Autonomy

• Innovation

• Efficiency• Where pipeline-type conditions prevail,

standard market power issues arise• Deferring consumption optimization

decisions to the point of consumption• Flexibility of using a car, not a train

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End-to-End

• Technical argument: Saltzer, Clark & Reed

• Lessig: core design characteristic of innovation on the Net• Telephone infrastructure—common

carriage and business-user treatment of ISPs allowed grafting end-to-end architecture over physical infrastructure

• How central is end-to-end to the political values?

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Pressures on End to End

• Lack of trustworthiness in peers• Spam, viruses• Advantages in moving security and

filtering into the network (e.g. firewalls)

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Pressures on End to End

• Lack of trustworthiness in peers

• Quality of service• Video streaming• Real time voice• Solutions can present themselves as

ways for the network to differentiate and separate out different content

• Policy routers; mirroring

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Pressures on End to End

• Lack of trustworthiness in peers

• Quality of service

• ISP service differentiation• Caching

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Pressures on End to End

• Lack of trustworthiness in peers

• Quality of service

• ISP service differentiation

• Third party interests• Employers• ISPs who see themselves as having

independent interests• Government officials

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Pressures on End to End

• Lack of trustworthiness in peers• Quality of service• ISP service differentiation• Third party interests

• Less sophisticated users• Intelligent end points require

knowledgeable users• Poorly trained users may need network-

implemented functionality

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Tradeoffs

FREEDOM V.          CONTROL    Played out in two domains

          POLITICAL ECONOMICfirst party v. third party Innovation v. manageabilityvoluntary v. involuntary Innovation/growth v. allocationuniversality v. balkanization Network externalities/socialnoncommercial v. commercial value v. private returnsautonomy v. order to investmentpopular/pluralist/discourse-centered democracy v. elitist democracy or republicanism

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Who will choose?

• ISPs?

• Physical infrastructure owners?

• Government?

• Markets?

• Technologists in standard setting bodies?

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State of Play____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Physical Layer

Logical Layer

Content Layer

Physical Layer

CableDSLSat.

Lic.wrls

“High Speed”—asymmetric 200 kbps downstream

0

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

6000

Dec-99 Jun-00 Dec-00 JuneMMI

ADSL

Other Wire

Cable

Fiber

Satellite & FixedWireless

Source: FCC Third 706 Report February 2002

“Advanced Services”at least 200 kbps both ways

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

3500

Dec-99 Jun-00 Dec-00 JuneMMI

ADSL

Other Wire

Cable

Fiber

Satellite & FixedWireless

Source: FCC Third 706 Report February 2002

“High Speed” to Homes & Small Business

0500

100015002000250030003500400045005000

Dec-99 Jun-00 Dec-00 JuneMMI

ADSL

Other Wire

Cable

Fiber

Satellite & FixedWireless

Source: FCC Third 706 Report February 2002

“Advanced Services” to Homes & Small Business

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

3500

Dec-99 Jun-00 Dec-00 JuneMMI

ADSL

Other Wire

Cable

Fiber

Satellite & FixedWireless

Source: FCC Third 706 Report February 2002

“Advanced Services” (to bigger institutions?)

0100200300400500600700800900

1000

Dec-99 Jun-00 Dec-00 JuneMMI

ADSL

Other Wire

Cable

Fiber

Satellite & FixedWireless

Source: FCC Third 706 Report February 2002

High Speed Lines to Homes & SOHO by Type of Provider

RBOC

Other ILEC

non-ILEC

Cable

State of Play

• Historically: Natural Monopoly• Monopoly more efficient• License/franchise plus price & service

regulation to prevent abuse

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State of Play

• Historically: Natural Monopoly

• 1990s: Multiple wires to the home• Contingency

• Convergence requires upgrade of previous monopoly legacy infrastructures already in most homes

• Second-best• as regulation fails to alleviate monopoly

problems, competition becomes preferred second-best

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State of Play

• Historically: Natural Monopoly

• 1990s: Multiple wires to the home

• 1996 Act and early implementation• Aggressive regulation to required

sharing of bottleneck inputs to create intra-modal competition in telcos

• But forbearance from cable• Early local efforts re: cable

overturned by courts• AOL-Time Warner Merger conditions

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State of Play

• Historically: Natural Monopoly

• 1990s: Multiple wires to the home

• 1996 Act and early implementation

• Last year

• General drift towards reliance solely on intermodal competition, with substantial retreat from access/unbundling for intramodal competition

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Physical Layer

CableDSL

Sat.

Lic.wrls

Declaratory Ruling

Appropriate Framework NPRM

Incumbent LEC NPRM & UNE Review

US Telecom Assn(DC Cir.)

Do two pipelines a competitive market make?

Open Wireless Networks

State of Play____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Physical Layer

Logical Layer

Content Layer

Logical Layer

TCP/IPHigher level protocols: e.g. naming & addressing

Operating systems: MS LinuxApplications Apache, Perl

Logical Layer

TCP/IPHigher level protocols: e.g. naming & addressing

Operating systems: MS Linux

Applications Apache, PerlTrusted systems required?

Trusted systems required?

Content Layer

Censorship: filtering, Monitoring, blocking

Censorship resistantsystems: Freenet etc.

Micky bound:Intellectual

property

Property-resistantsystems:

Kazaa etc.

Free sharing: peer production

creative commons

Wrap up

• The stakes of adhering to an Internet model of communications are both political and economic

• Sustaining that architecture requires openness at all layers of the communications environment

• Government censors and property-based incumbents seek to close the the communications environment

• Will they succeed?

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