Accelerating the Net Neutrality Debate

By Thomas Eklund, Vice President of Marketing and Business Development, Xelerated

Coined as “The First Amendment of the Internet,” the net neutrality movement’s goal is to prevent big name service providers from providing Web site access based on business profitability. Why is this important? With money driving Internet access, mom-and-pop Web sites won’t be able to survive – ultimately putting the power (and our information sources) in the hands of a select few.

With President Barack Obama’s support of net neutrality, the movement is once again gaining traction. Part of Obama’s plan includes the further development of the nation's broadband and digital infrastructure. Because of the investment associated with building out such infrastructure, the President recently reaffirmed the commitment he made to network neutrality early on in his campaign.

Now that net neutrality is back in the limelight, what are the implications for the broadband community?

While the concept means many things for the broadband community, it directly affects the enabling technologies service providers will use to build new networks and to continue building out existing networks. With significant infrastructure investments and changing regulation policies, service providers must choose technology investments carefully – taking into consideration payback periods and operating models that are flexible to future changes in regulatory standards.

Looking at the enabling technologies currently available to service providers, some are designed for restrictive or two-tiered models while others inherently support an open, net neutral infrastructure.

For example, PON (passive optical networks) systems place restrictions on how the access portion of the network is broken up – making it easy to create competition through a tiered system. In delivering these optical fiber cabling and signals through a tiered system, PON technologies enable the discrimination of services and content.

Conversely, switch-based Active Ethernet is more flexible – allowing for a range of different operating models. Because a fiber is dedicated to each subscriber from the Ethernet switch, moving subscribers is simple for Carrier Ethernet providers. Such an open access services model is essential in accounting for differences in current infrastructure in addition to future upgrade requirements.

The Carrier Ethernet movement is closely linked to the debate between net neutrality and a two-tiered Internet model. Whatever the outcome of this particular debate, service providers must continuously monitor FCC regulations, (higher bit rate) demands from end users and the available technologies that can meet the needs of both.

Thomas Eklund is vice president of marketing and business development and founder of Xelerated. He has more than 13 years of experience in Ethernet Switching, Mobile Internet and IPv6. He is currently a member of the IPv6 Forum Technical Directorate and co-author of several IETF drafts.