Word: e2e
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...core of the Internet is a principle of design described by network architects Jerome Saltzer, David P. Reed and David Clark as "end-to-end." The principle of e2e says, Keep the network simple, and build intelligence in the applications ("ends"). Simple networks, smart applications--this was the design choice of the Internet's founders...
...benefited from this neutrality. Because regulators breaking up AT&T forced the telephone company to respect e2e neutrality, consumers of telephone service have always had the right to choose the Internet service provider they want, not the ISP the telephone company is pushing. This built an architecture of extraordinary competition among ISPs. AOL, by delivering what consumers want, has prevailed in this competition...
...this may change, however, as Internet access moves from narrowband (telephones) to broadband (predominantly cable). Cable companies are not required to respect e2e; they are allowed to discriminate. Unlike telephone companies, they get to choose which "new ideas" will run on cable's network. They get to block services they don't like. Already many limit the streaming of video to computers (while charging a premium for streaming video to televisions). And this is only the beginning. The list of blocked uses is large and growing...
Compromising on the principle of e2e would weaken the Internet. It would increase the costs of innovation. If to deploy a new technology or the next killer application--like the World Wide Web was in the early 1990s or gadgets to link the home to the Net may someday become--you first have to negotiate with every cable interest or with every AOL, then fewer innovations will be made. The Internet will calcify to support present-day uses--which is great for the monopolies of today but terrible for the future that the Internet could...
...test will be whether AOL sticks to the principle of e2e, and if it doesn't, whether the government will understand enough to defend the principle in response. If AOL respects e2e in broadband, if it keeps the platform of the network neutral among new uses, if it builds a guarantee into its architecture that innovation will be allowed and encouraged, then we should not worry so much about what AOL owns. Only when it tries to own (through architecture) the right to innovate should we worry...
| 1 |