End-To-End Arguments in the Internet: Principles, Practices, and Theory
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End-to-End Arguments in the Internet: Principles, Practices, and Theory vorgelegt von Matthias Bärwolff Von der Fakultät IV Elektrotechnik und Informatik der Technischen Universität Berlin zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades Doktor der Ingenieurwissenschaften (Dr. Ing.) genehmigte Dissertation Promotionsausschuss: Prof. Dr. Anja Feldmann (Vorsitzende) Prof. Dr. Bernd Lutterbeck (Berichter) Dr. David D. Clark (Berichter) Tag der wissenschaftlichen Aussprache: 22. Oktober 2010 Berlin 2010 D 83 Dissertation submitted to the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Technische Universität Berlin in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Dr. Ing. Advisers: Prof. em. Dr. iur. Bernd Lutterbeck, Technische Universität Berlin Dr. David D. Clark, Massachusetts Institute of Technology I gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the German Academic Exchange Service (Deutscher Akademischer Auslandsdienst, DAAD) who have given me a scholarship for a stay at MIT in early 2009. Diese Doktorarbeit wurde mit finanzieller Unterstützung des Deutschen Akademischen Auslandsdiensts (DAAD) in Form eines dreimonatigen Doktorandenstipendiums im Jahr 2009 angefertigt. © Copyright 2010 by Matthias Bärwolff www.bärwolff.de [email protected] +49 30 20238852 rinciples are often more effective guides for action when they appear as no more than an unreasoned prejudice, Pa general feeling that certain things simply “are not done”; while as soon as they are explicitly stated speculation begins about their correctness and their validity. [ . ] Once the instinctive certainty is lost, perhaps as a result of unsuccessful attempts to put into words principles that had been observed “intuitively”, there is no way of regaining such guidance other than to search for a correct statement of what before was known implicitly. —Friedrich August von Hayek (1973, p. 60) Abstract The end-to-end arguments — a founding principle of the Internet — have inspired a world of opinionated interpretations, re-articulations, and com- ments about their lower-level technical and higher-level normative merit. However, their precise meaning and scope of applicability have remained diffuse — arguably as diffuse as the constituency of stakeholders in the very Internet itself. Our thesis elaborates the end-to-end arguments by putting them into a meaningful context of other principles as well as the current realities of the Internet. Also, it elaborates their normative content in view of a defendable set of purposes. To these ends we have conducted a most thorough study of primary literature going back to the intellectual predecessors of the Internet in the early 1960s, and developed the several notions of this thesis in a largely desk-based research effort. Following a comprehensive discussion of the various different versions of the end-to-end arguments both prior to and subsequent to the seminal Saltzer et al. (1981a) formulation we trace the actual manifestations of the end-to-end arguments walking from the Arpanet as developed in the late 1960s to the eventual Internet architecture emerging from the mid-1970s. We find that the descriptive content of the end-to-end arguments is, in fact, broader than their self-contained formulation as a logical argument about application completeness implies. Second, we find that they are best conceived as one principle within a framework of other, no less relevant principles. And, third, we argue for a revised normative take on the end- to-end arguments that emphasizes the importance of edge redundancy as a crucial means of extending their scope beyond the classic considerations of data integrity alone. In all, we add much needed focus and clarity to a notion that has been carried so far away from its original content as to cloud its true relevance in both today’s Internet and tomorrow’s. v Zusammenfassung Seit ihrer ursprünglichen Fassung von Saltzer u. a. (1981a) wurden die „End-to-End Arguments“ – der Kern eines der grundlegenden Prinzipien des Internets – im Hinblick auf ihre technische und normative Bedeutung stetig neu interpretiert und bewertet. Indes, der eigentliche Gehalt und die Grenzen ihrer Gültigkeit sind dabei weitgehend diffus geblieben – ebenso diffus wohl wie das Internet und die Menge derer, die es prägen und nut- zen. Diese Arbeit entwickelt die „End-to-End Arguments“ weiter, indem sie sie in einen sinnvollen Kontext aus anderen Prinzipien führt und da- bei nicht nur den Realitäten des heutigen Internets gerecht wird, sondern zudem eine sorgfältige Zweckbestimmung für deren normativen Gehalt vornimmt. Basierend auf einer ausführlichen Erörterung der verschiedenen Ver- sionen der „End-to-End Arguments“ betrachten wir die technischen Arte- fakte, in denen sich jene von der Entwicklung des Arpanets in den späten 1960er Jahren bis hin zum Internet in den 1970er Jahren spiegeln. Es zeigt sich, dass die „End-to-End Arguments“ auf deskriptiver Ebene deutlich breitere Anwendbarkeit finden, als sich dies aus dem logischen Kern der ursprünglichen Formulierung ergibt. Weiterhin zeigt sich, dass der Ge- halt der „End-to-End Arguments“ sich in einem systematischen Kontext aus weiteren für die Platzierung von Funktionen relevanten Prinzipien am besten fassen lässt. Nicht zuletzt entwickelt die Arbeit eine sinnvol- le normative Fassung der „End-to-End Arguments“, die die Wichtigkeit von Redundanz an den Rändern des Internets, dort wo die Enden Zugang nehmen, betont. Dadurch verbreitert sich deren Geltungsbereich weit über den klassischen Betrachtungsgegenstand von Datenintegrität hinaus. Ins- gesamt gewinnen die „End-to-End Arguments“ durch unsere Arbeit an Fokus und Klarheit im Hinblick auf deren, auch künftige, Bedeutung. vii Preface Who Should Read this Thesis This thesis has been written first and foremost in pursuit of an academic degree, but we hope that it will also be read by more than six people.1 Broadly speaking, this thesis aims at (1) scholars, students, and reflective practitioners at the intersection of computer science and economics, (2) those interested in the broader history of the Internet, but also (3) regula- tors and all those with a stake in technology policy ranging from political parties to technology industry representatives and strategists. We neither strictly assume the reader to be familiar with basic text- book descriptions of the Internet (e. g., Peterson and Davie 2007; Kurose and Ross 2005; Stallings 2007) nor with historical accounts of networking (e. g., Norberg et al. 1996; Hafner and Lyon 1998); however, having some general intuition about the basic notions of computer networking will sub- stantially ease the reading of this thesis. Also, we highly recommend to have read the original paper on “end-to-end arguments in system design” by Saltzer et al. (1981a). Technical Aspects of This Thesis This thesis is written in (American) English language.2 Largely this is be- cause the bulk of the underlying literature and controversy is in English. Also, in all modesty, we hope that this work will be read beyond the con- fines of the German speaking world. As for the content, while it does get technical in some places, we have tried to keep the text concise and accessible. Also, we have chosen to move the notes — which are often very copious, sometimes bordering the ix Preface pedantic — into the back matter, (1) to make the body of the text readable and coherent in its own right, and (2) to allow for the flexibility of adding comprehensive asides where they are suitable (if only for completeness’ sake). As for the broad structure of this thesis, while it obviously follows some linear sequence, most sections are self-contained, and the reader may choose to jump over sections and generally read them in the order they prefer (see the contents). A note on style, particularly regarding the endnotes: at times, we have here included copious digressions which are not central, sometimes not even strictly relevant, to the arguments in the main text. However, often we felt that such asides would add to the broader discussion — be it by providing additional perspectives, or by recounting obscure but instructive literature threads (see the index of interesting asides). Last, we should like to mention the most important layout choices and LATEX packages we have used: • The notes have been moved away from the main body of the text by using the endnotes package with a slight customization for obtaining hyperlinks from the notes back to the places in the main text that spawned them. • The headers and footers have been customized using the fancyhdr package, plus tweaks for which credit goes to Philipp Lehmann. • The bibliography has been managed with the biblatex package, again by Philipp Lehmann, with some minor customizations. • Also, we have made rather extensive use of the hyperref package. Finally, readers of the electronic version may want to press here to turn on (or off) some of the mini tables of content in the PDF (when viewing in Acrobat Reader — layer and JavaScript support necessary). (Now they are on.) x Acknowledgments Many thanks to Prof. Dr. Bernd Lutterbeck — first, for letting me work on a subject as ambitious and difficult as this research turned out to be; second, for guiding my efforts such that the whole work became manageable; and, third, for being patient with me, and letting me get away with taking a fair bit longer than we had planned. Speaking of getting away with things, I also want to thank the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Technische Universität Berlin for accepting my thesis, even though I do not hold an proper univer- sity degree in computer science. Horst Bamberg, Lutz Haase, and Gabriela Ernst handled my ‘case’ with a most professional and flexible attitude. Thanks also to Prof. Dr. Adam Wolisz for handling my exam. The third paragraph of this list of acknowledgments firmly goes to Dr. David D. Clark of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He took me on as a visiting student for the academic year 2008/2009 despite a lack of any meaningful references other than a thesis proposal.