It seems that those who decide how the internet works, and grows, is built, and who controls it, are arguing about HOW it will work over the next decade or so. Those decisions will affect how fast your internet runs and how much you pay for access.
To understand net neutrality, we need to understand the net…
WHAT IS THE INTERNET?
“The internet” isn’t necessarily what you are seeing on your screen. The internet is all of the fiber optic cables, the servers, the proverbial series of tubes, owned by the myriad companies that built it and are still doing so. What you see on your screen just shows up, and the beauty of internet protocol is that this is all invisible to the user. For the most part, the thing just works, for all of us, every day, on every screen, everywhere,
The problem with the internet comes when the thing doesn’t function the same. The reasons are equally invisible.
PULLING BACK THE CURTAIN
When people say net neutrality, they usually mean that no one should have the power to “priviledge” – or prioritize, one type of content over another. If that began to happen, they say, some things on your screen would no longer respond the way they do now. Some content would be faster, some slower.
Depending on whatever deals were made somewhere up the line.
UP THE LINE? WHAT LINE?
It helps to remember that most of the noise is over things that affect what we call the “last mile”. That is what happens between your ISP and you.
Actually, most of the action takes place outside of your ISP (which is your point of contact with the rest of the internet). Your particular ISP may be a local or regional network (called a tier 2 ISP) or it might be a national or global network owner (a tier 1 ISP). Above that there are simple, commercial only, large-scale networks, called backbones, which connect large entities, but never touch us little people.
These companies all work together, and have always just supplied each other whatever was needed to keep the whole thing going, something you could call traffic sharing. They didn’t charge each other, as they all needed access to more users. Eventually things began to evolve. For example, smaller networks began to play, and would pay for access to the larger one, which is called paid peering.
THE LAYERS
Backbone: Cogent, Level 2.
Large network: AT&T, Verizon.
Network: Time Warner Cable and Comcast, which started out as cable TV providers.
ISP: Your internet supplier
YOU
Guess who paid for access to networks? The small typically pay the large.
BUT things are still evolving. Netflix, Google and Amazon take up enormous bandwidth, and traffic is only growing. Not just numbers of people – but sheer bandwidth: 4k anyone? So what happens to that older peering system?
SORTING IT OUT
How do these companies get their traffic to us across the existing networks we just discussed?
1. If you can afford it, you can build your own backbone network, which means fiber (nationally or globally).
Good example: Google. It is big enough to exchange data with other large networks and ISPs. There don’t seem to be a whole lot of disagreements over YouTube traffic, do there?
2. You can pay for someone else to use their existing backbone network to carry your data.
Example: Netflix uses Level 3
3. You could use a CDN (content display network). Use one close to your customers, and data goes just about as fast as 1. and 2. And no one is the wiser.
Example: Amazon Web Services.
Some companies do all 3 at the same time.
THE LAST MILE AND AV
All of the above have everything to do with how data arrives to our screens, yet is all but invisible to most. At the same time, many of these entities would like to position themselves to levy a toll or two, which could fundamentally change the rest of the network.
When the subject comes up, most people focus on streaming movies, but what else could affect us?
A whole lot. The AV industry puts lots of critical data on the internet. Everything from video (videoconferencing, streaming, digital signage) to equipment communication (control, monitoring). What if some of these signals take a path across the internet that is somehow restricted by a third party?
So whether we understand it nor not, net neutrality does matter; especially if the outcome of current discussions leads to a less reliable internet connection for a professional provider under any circumstances. If professional services and SAAS (Software as a Service) providers in AV are affected, they will care.
Does that mean there is anything you can do about all of this? More in my next post.