[e2e] traffic engineering considered harmful

[David P. Reed]

At 05:07 PM 6/12/01 -0400, Manish Karir wrote:


>definately a very e2e idea, but misses one crucial fact, that
>the network providers are different from the consumers(the ends).
>the network providers can never be convinced to trust the ends to
>do the right thing(did'nt somebody on this list bring up the issue of
>trust earlier...??) think about it...if you spend millions building
>out your network, would you let somebody else control it??

Yes, if I could make more money that way.  (and it is only a black and 
white decision for those who can't imagine sharing control because they see 
the world as a collection of binary exclusions).

The idea that "control is identical with the most profit (or value 
creation)" has been proven wrong over and over.  Economic history is 
littered with ventures that lost dominance because they loved control too 
much.  Look at GM, Xerox, Kodak, France.

Control is merely control.  Some people like power, and in some cases it 
goes so far as to be a mental handicap.  They seek it even at the cost of 
creating less benefit for themselves and others.