Internet Traffic Management in the UK
Alissa CooperChief Computer Scientist
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Discrimination
differential treatment of different Internet traffic
on the basis of application or content
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Potential avenues for discrimination
Blocking/filteringPrioritization/QoS
Traffic shapingInterconnection
Caching
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Potential avenues for discrimination
Blocking/filteringPrioritization/QoS
Traffic shapingInterconnection
Caching
Traffic management Everything else
Operator’s initiativeNo payment
Performance justification
Negotiated with app provider Payment
Revenue + performance justification
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Potential avenues for discrimination
Blocking/filteringPrioritization/QoS
Traffic shapingInterconnection
Caching
Traffic management Everything else
Operator’s initiativeNo payment
Performance justification
Negotiated with app provider Payment
Revenue + performance justification
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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
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ISP 0 ISP 1 ISP 2 ISP 3 ISP 4 . . . ISP N
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ISP 0 ISP 1 ISP 2 ISP 3 ISP 4 . . . ISP N
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Competition
Competition reduces operator’s incentive to discriminate because discrimination may drive
customers to competitors
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Competition
Competition reduces operator’s incentive to discriminate because discrimination may drive
customers to competitors
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BT Wholesalebackhaul
BT Openreach access
ISP network
ISP backhaul BT Openreach access
ISP network
Unbundled exchange
Urban
Rural
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UK broadband connection shares
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2007 2008 2009 2010 2011
BT Retail
Everything Everywhere
O2
O2 off-net
TalkTalk
Sky
Sky off-net
Virgin
Virgin off-net
Hints of UK application shaping
P2PVideo
P2P, Video
P2P, News
P2P
P2P, News
P2P
P2P
User-reported limits: App experiences 0.5% to 10% of headline speed.Weekdays afternoon to midnight, weekends mid-day to midnight.
P2P, News
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BT Wholesalebackhaul
Openreach access
ISP network
£££
Cost savings
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BT Wholesalebackhaul
Openreach access
ISP network
£
Cost savings
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Price competition
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TM platforms get entrenched
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Why?
• Cost savings• Price competition• Traffic management platforms get
entrenched
Sdf Competition has not safeguarded nondiscriminatory traffic
management in the UK
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BT TalkTalk Virgin Sky, O2 Everything smaller ISPs Everywhere
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2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011
AT&T
CenturyLink
Comcast
Cox
Other cable
Verizon
Hints of US app limitations
Observed behavior consisted primarily of preventing pure BitTorrent seeding.
P2P
P2P
P2P
FCC Enforcement FCC Rules
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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
