The Technical is Political

1
The Technical is Political
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Access to an open Information environment
2
Overview
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• 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

3
Network Architecture
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• 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

4
Communicative Functions in a Communications
Channel
Noise/Signal Conversion
Intelligence Production
Message Production
Conceptual mapping
Medium choice (form)
Collection
Stimuli
Relevance filtration
Processing meaning
Channel choice
Coding for medium and channel
Articulation
Accreditaton
Transmission
Reception
Perceived by sender as stimulus
(serial monologues)
Transmission medium (form)
Recipients noise/ signal conversion
Accreditation
Filtration
Comprehension / assimilation
Transmission channel (physical layer)
Intelligence reproduction / decoding
Reply (if any)
Reception medium
Perceived by sender as reply through the channel
(dialogue)
5
Communicative Functions in a Broadcast Model
Funding providers
Broadcasters
Intelligence Production
Conceptual mapping
Noise/Signal Conversion
Message Production
Collection
Relevance filtration
Processing meaning
Medium choice
Accreditaton
Articulation
Channel choice
Transmission
Reply (if any)
Transmission medium (form)
Reception
Coding for medium and channel
Accreditation
Transmission channel (physical layer)
Recipients noise/ signal conversion
Filtration
Reception medium
Comprehension / assimilation
Distribution ChannelOwners
Intelligence reproduction / decoding
End users
Regulators
6
Communicative Functions in a Telephony Model
End-Users (senders)
Noise/Signal Conversion
Intelligence Production
Conceptual mapping
Collection
Processing meaning
Relevance filtration
Accreditaton
Articulation
Message Production
Medium choice
Transmission
Reception
Channel choice
Transmission medium (form)
Recipients noise/ signal conversion
Accreditation
Coding for medium and channel
Transmission channel (physical layer)
Filtration
Comprehension / assimilation
Intelligence reproduction / decoding
Reception medium
Carriers
Reply
End users (recipients)
7
Communicative Functions in an Internet Model
End-Users (senders)
Noise/Signal Conversion
Message Production
Collection
Intelligence Production
Medium choice
Relevance filtration
Conceptual mapping
Processing meaning
Reply
Coding for medium and channel
Accreditaton
Articulation
Transmission medium (form)
Reply
Channel choice
Transmission
Carriers ISPs
Transmission channel (physical layer open
logical layer)
Reception medium
Reply
Reply
Accreditation
Filtration
End users (recipients)
Reception
Recipients noise/ signal conversion
Comprehension / assimilation
Intelligence reproduction / decoding
8
Broadcast vs. Internet Models Aggregated Effects
Program Producers
Broadcasters
Network Service Providers
End Users
End Users
9
The Stakes
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• 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

10
The Stakes
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• Democracy
• Autonomy
• Ciscos 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 partners
  services with full speed features to encourage
  adoption of your services
• Who defines the window through which one trains
  ones eyes on the prize whose prize?

11
The Stakes
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• Democracy
• Autonomy
• Innovation
• Lessig, Baldwin, Reed
• E.g., voice/video over IP implemented through
  desktop software

12
The Stakes
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• 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

13
End-to-End
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• Technical argument Saltzer, Clark Reed
• Lessig core design characteristic of innovation
  on the Net
• Telephone infrastructurecommon 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?

14
Pressures on End to End
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• Lack of trustworthiness in peers
• Spam, viruses
• Advantages in moving security and filtering into
  the network (e.g. firewalls)

15
Pressures on End to End
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• 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

16
Pressures on End to End
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• Lack of trustworthiness in peers
• Quality of service
• ISP service differentiation
• Caching

17
Pressures on End to End
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• 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

18
Pressures on End to End
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• 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

19
Tradeoffs
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• FREEDOM V.          CONTROL   
• Played out in two domains
•           POLITICAL ECONOMIC
• first party v. third party Innovation
  v. manageability
• voluntary v. involuntary
  Innovation/growth v. allocation
• universality v. balkanization Network
  externalities/social
• noncommercial v. commercial value v. private
  returns
• autonomy v. order to investment
• popular/pluralist/discourse-
• centered democracy v. elitist
• democracy or republicanism

20
Who will choose?
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• ISPs?
• Physical infrastructure owners?
• Government?
• Markets?
• Technologists in standard setting bodies?

21
State of Play
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Content Layer
Logical Layer
Physical Layer
22
Physical Layer
Cable
Sat.
DSL
Lic. wrls
23
High Speedasymmetric 200 kbps downstream
Source FCC Third 706 Report February 2002
24
Advanced Servicesat least 200 kbps both ways
Source FCC Third 706 Report February 2002
25
High Speed to Homes Small Business
Source FCC Third 706 Report February 2002
26
Advanced Services to Homes Small Business
Source FCC Third 706 Report February 2002
27
Advanced Services (to bigger institutions?)
Source FCC Third 706 Report February 2002
28
High Speed Lines to Homes SOHO by Type of
Provider
29
State of Play
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• Historically Natural Monopoly
• Monopoly more efficient
• License/franchise plus price service regulation
  to prevent abuse

30
State of Play
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• 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

31
State of Play
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• 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

32
State of Play
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• 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

33
Physical Layer
Do two pipelines a competitive market make?
Cable
Sat.
DSL
Declaratory Ruling
US Telecom Assn (DC Cir.)
Appropriate Framework NPRM
Lic. wrls
Incumbent LEC NPRM UNE Review
34
State of Play
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Content Layer
Logical Layer
Physical Layer
35
Logical Layer
Applications
Apache, Perl
Operating systems MS
Linux
Higher level protocols e.g. naming addressing
TCP/IP
36
Logical Layer
Applications
Apache, Perl
Trusted systems required?
Operating systems MS
Linux
Higher level protocols e.g. naming addressing
TCP/IP
Trusted systems required?
37
Content Layer
Micky bound Intellectual property
Property-resistant systems Kazaa etc.
Free sharing peer production creative commons
Censorship filtering, Monitoring, blocking
Censorship resistant systems Freenet etc.
38
Wrap up
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• 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?