Broken Internet?

William Allen Simpson wsimpson at greendragon.com
Tue Mar 13 23:24:01 UTC 2001


Roeland Meyer wrote:
> 
> What we have today is a manufactured dependence on a single upstream
> provider and no way to multi-home. Even co-lo boils down to single-home
> dependency.
>...
> It looks like our technical solutions are raising unreasonable barriers to
> entry for small businesses.

I beg to differ.

I presented a _technical_ solution back in '92-93 at IETF -- numbering 
allocations based on local exchanges.  Deering presented another -- 
numbering based on metropolitan areas.  Either eliminated dependence 
on a single upstream, and made it simple to switch.

Instead, we have the non-technical solution -- provider-based 
allocations.  Why?  Contrary to Greenwell's assertion, capital does NOT 
seek a "market based" solution.  Successful markets assume competition 
and low barriers to entry.  Capital seeks best return on investment.  
Best return requires monopoly advantage.

Either of our proposals would have improved competition, but 
competition was not what the large providers wanted.  The large 
providers funded ARIN.

The _technical_ solutions required regional cooperation between local 
providers to carry all local (non-transit) traffic directed to the 
exchange(s), much as the NSFnet (back when this was the regional-techs 
list).  Such cooperation has been in short supply.

WSimpson at UMich.edu
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