[e2e] Switched Ethernet is Not an End-to-End System; was Protocols breaking the end-to-end argument

[Richard Bennett]

I think that would be an incorrect interpretation, Noel. Clark says the 
Internet is not neutral *and never has been* because the edge-managed, 
best-efforts paradigm supports content-oriented applications better than 
communications-oriented, real-time applications; or that's my 
understanding, at least.

The question that I find interesting is whether the Internet is on its 
way toward becoming a legacy network for content distribution in a 
triple-play world where more compelling communications-oriented 
applications will share the same infrastructure but use fundamentally 
different protocols, as Detlef indicated in his message about VLANs and 
such. It appears to me that the legacy direction seems most likely at 
the moment. This doesn't have to be the case, however, and it would be 
more interesting to me for the Internet protocols to grow the capability 
to support VoIP, gaming, and real-time video streaming capabilities that 
would eliminate the need for network fragmentation via VLANs or some 
similar means.

The doctrinaire insistence that the Internet must always work the way it 
has in the past is a recipe for obsolescence, in other words.

RB

Noel Chiappa wrote:
>     > From: Richard Bennett <richard at bennett.com>
>
>     > It's rather interesting that while Bob Braden insists that the Internet
>     > is an "application neutral network" David Clark famously derides such
>     > views as "happy little bunny rabbit dreams" and works to make it better
>     > able to support diverse applications.
>
> Without taking the time to delve into exactly the cimcumstance of each
> statement (since it's not that important), I suspect that Bob was talking of
> 'the network as first designed and deployed, where new stuff was easy to roll
> out', and Dave was talking of 'the network we actually have today, with
> routers filtering on protocol/port for security, commercial reasons, etc,
> etc'.
>
> 	Noel
>   

-- 
Richard Bennett
Research Fellow
Information Technology and Innovation Foundation
Washington, DC