Policy management – the enforcement of predetermined rules that allocate scarce network resources to users to ensure a consistent service quality – has a checkered history, but wireless will be its final test. Several wireless carriers have blocked Skype and other VoIP applications, for instance, and some carriers are experimenting with bandwidth capping. This has drawn criticism from consumer advocacy groups such as FreePress, which is asking for FCC involvement to ensure open access in accordance with the agency’s official policy of supporting net neutrality. But as data traffic continues to explode, when and how should carriers be able to act upon this traffic to ensure that the majority of users realize acceptable service quality? Who is right here, if anyone?
Policy Management: Simple in Theory, Complex in Practice
Policy management can be implemented for many types of services, such as IPTV or video on demand. However, the bulk of the controversy over it ties to the implementation of policies on open networks like the broadband Internet. The tools enable the network to determine whether a user is allowed on the network and whether the user is entitled to greater or lesser usage of the network. In the latter case, the level of network usage (which determines the quality of service) can be based on the availability of resources themselves, the profile of the user and services, or other factors.
There are two broad areas of contention here. First, there is disagreement over the scarcity of resources involved. Second, the rules governing how these scarce resources should be allocated are hotly debated.
Given that the floodgates are opening on mobile data traffic, and expensive nature of wireless traffic, it is clear that mobile networks will eventually be the focus of policy management.
What About Wireless?
Carriers are only beginning to deploy policy management on wireless data networks. While it is impossible to foresee exactly how consumer, regulatory, technical and competitive forces will shape wireless policy moving forward (and at what pace), we can draw two key conclusions from the past.
First, policy that affects broadband (Internet, over-the-top, etc.) applications should be based on reasonable network management practices as defined below and not commercial or competitive interests. Returning to where we started, it is difficult to justify the blocking of VoIP traffic.
