Monday, December 10, 2007

Net Neutrality

Net Neutrality - The Basis of The Internet

Net Nuetrality is a much larger pandora's box than simple control over commerce because it is the basis on which communications are and can continue to be transferred. The Internet transfers information without interpretation - i.e. neutral. A set of rules established in the 70's still exists today and because of its founding fathers' visions (Al wasn't part of those talks), it is built for substantial growth. Those rules allow for communications to be picked up from one location and transferred across communication mediums (wires, radio, sattellite, etc.) to another location. During its travels, the information is wrapped up in a blanket to prevent it from being interpreted; those blanket-wrapped communication bundles are called packets. The packets are dropped off at their destination, and interpreted by a tool - this process is referred to as client side activity because you (the client) have a tool that acts to interpret the information that was sent to you.

Internet transfers work similar to your snail mail. Your mail deliver person picks up your mail from the PO, reads the address, and delivers it to your door in sunshine, sleet or rain. Provided the mail person is not removed from his or her intended route, the mail goes through; a deviation in the routing can cause a delay in delivery or loss of mail.

Simularly, that is precisely how the net handles your communications, and despite any hiccups, Internet communications are delivered to their Internet address.

An ISP - Internet Service Provider - facilitatea that process by managing servers connected to the Internet. The Internet has two main backbones in the United States - one in the west and the other in the east, just like the electrical system in the US, and in fact reliant on it. Many web servers are connected directly to the Internet on the main backbone, while others are connected to another server that is connected to the Internet directly. Previously, whether a server was on the main backbone or on a connector mattered in regards to the ability of that server to provide bandwidth to its users. Today, those discrepancies are far less meaningful in the United States; rather, the differences are more obvious to country location than city location, or to the method of connection by the end client (you, the web surfer) and whether you use dial-up or broadband than they are to whether you are directly on the main backbone or off of it by one or three connections because the throughput has so dramatically improved. The ISP's recieve packets of information, read the address, and deliver it to your address.

If ISP's develop software to interpret the packets, then the process becomes dependant on the recieving software's ability to read the packet that was sent, as well as the sending software's ability to send a packet that can be read. If those types of restrictions exist, then communication outside of the ISP is limited or revoked.

That is the basis of net neutrality - Net Neutrality seeks to keep all communications from one end to another end neutral so that all persons can access, send and receive communications without interpretation. The reason that so many ISP's are up in arms about Net Neutrality is because they either want to control communications so as to restrict what you can read, see, send and receive or they are at the other end of the argument and want no restrictions placed on any net communications. Restriction will undoubtedly limit communications. Any restriction would impact the way the net operates, and it is believed (and probably true) that the ISP's that want restrictions want to create a commerce stream of their own which excludes other ISP access.

Neutrally yours,
^.com^

No comments: