Bandwidth is Political: Reachability in the Public Internet Nancy Paterson A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY JOINT GRADUATE PROGRAM IN COMMUNICATION & CULTURE YORK UNIVERSITY, TORONTO, ONTARIO DECEMBER 2009 Electronic copy available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2355762 BANDWIDTH IS POLITICAL By Nancy Paterson A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies of York University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Copyright © 2009 by Nancy Paterson. Permission has been granted to: a) YORK UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES to lend or sell copies of this dissertation in paper, microform or electronic formats, and b) LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA to reproduce, lend, distribute, or sell copies of this dissertation anywhere in the world in microform, paper, or electronic formats and to authorize or procure the reproduction, loan, distribution or sale of copies of this dissertation anywhere in the world in microform, paper, or electronic formats. The author reserves other publication rights, and neither the dissertation nor extensive extracts from it may be printed or otherwise reproduced without the author’s written permission. Electronic copy available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2355762 BANDWIDTH IS POLITICAL By Nancy Paterson By virtue of submitting this document electronically, the author certifies that this is a true electronic equivalent of the copy of the dissertation approved by York University for the award of the degree. No alteration of the content has occurred and if there are any minor variations in formatting, they are the result of the conversion to Adobe Acrobat format (or similar software application). Examination Committee members: 1. Dr. Michael Murphy 2. Dr. Jerome Durlak 3. Dr. Fred Fetcher iv Bandwidth is Political Abstract - Summary thesis statement The global public Internet faces a growing but little studied threat from the use of intrusive traffic management practices by both wholesale and retail Internet service providers. Unlike research concerned with bandwidth and traffic growth, this study shifts the risk analysis away from capacity issues to focus on performance standards for interconnection and data reachability. The long-term health of the Internet is framed in terms of “data reachability” – the principle that any end-user can reach any part of the Internet without encountering arbitrary actions on the part of a network operator that might block or degrade transmission. Risks to reachability are framed in terms of both systematic traffic management practices and “de-peering,” a more aggressive tactic practised by Tier-1 network operators to resolve disputes or punish rivals. De-peering is examined as an extension of retail network management practices that include the growing use of deep packet inspection (DPI) technology for traffic-shaping. De-peering can also be viewed as a close relative of Net Neutrality, to the extent that both concepts reflect arbitrary practices that interfere with the reliable flow of data packets across the Internet. In jurisdictional terms, v however, de-peering poses a qualitatively different set of risks to stakeholders and end-users, as well as qualitatively different challenges to policymakers. It is argued here that risks to data unreachability represent the next stage in debates about the health and sustainability of the global Internet. The study includes a detailed examination of the development of the Internet’s enabling technologies; the evolution of telecommunications regulation in Canada and the United States, and its impact on Internet governance; and an analysis of the role played by commercialization and privatization in the growth of risks to data reachability. vi DEDICATION “Not all those who wander are lost. J. R. R. Tolkien” is the author’s notation added to the chapter one title Networking and Network Routing: An Introduction in D. Medhi & K. Ramasamy’s 2007 book titled Network Routing. I could not have said it better. This is dedicated to my committee Dr. Jerome Durlak, Dr. Fred Fletcher and Dr. Michael Murphy. Assistance from Tracey Bickford, Julie Birkle, Karen Brophy, Dr. David Ellis, Dr. Caitlin Fisher, Diane Jenner, Ian Lumb, Sal Panudero, Eriks Rugelis, Elvira Sanchez de Malicki and Lynn Walker is gratefully appreciated. Without their support this work would not have been possible. vii Table of Contents Abstract - Summary thesis statement ...............................................................iv List of Figures ................................................................................................... x Introduction: A New Internet Era.....................................................1 The Commercialization of Bandwidth Stakeholders.......................................... 3 Reachability and Net Neutrality......................................................................... 7 Dominant Role of the United States.................................................................. 9 Literature Review ............................................................................................ 11 Chapter I. Peering, Transit and Bandwidth Stakeholders...........18 Peering and Transit in Practice....................................................................... 18 Peering ........................................................................................................... 21 Transit............................................................................................................. 22 Interconnection: Border Gateway Protocol & Autonomous System Numbers. 22 Emergence and Development of Bandwidth Stakeholders ............................. 30 Regional Peering Practices............................................................................. 34 Chapter II. Conflict and Confluence: Legacy Telephone Networks and the Emergence of the Internet................................................40 U.S. Role and Influence .................................................................................. 42 Gatekeeping and Net Neutrality...................................................................... 44 viii Clash of Two Cultures..................................................................................... 46 Rival Solutions to the Problem of Internetworking........................................... 55 Deregulation and Privatization: the Internet Becomes a Business.................. 66 The FCC and Internet Backbone Policy.......................................................... 75 Telecommunications Services vs Information Services .................................. 81 Ad Hoc Oversight of the U.S. Backbone Marketplace..................................... 91 Chapter III. Internet Governance Before and After Commercialization..........................................................................98 Development of the Technical Governing Bodies ......................................... 101 ARPANET and After: Managing the Internet................................................. 104 The National Science Foundation and NSFNET........................................... 109 A New Architecture: Network Access Points................................................. 114 Commercialization: The NSF Withdraws and Transit Begins........................ 118 The Impact of Commercialization on IANA: Old Functions, New Problems .. 122 ICANN: the Domain Name System and other Conflicts ................................ 128 The IANA Function and Autonomous System Numbers (ASNs)................... 132 Governance in a New Light........................................................................... 135 Chapter IV. Risks to Reachability................................................146 Peering, Interconnection and Market Concentration..................................... 146 Reachability as a Net Neutrality Issue .......................................................... 153 ix Traffic Management Practices Affecting Reachability ................................... 162 Packet Filtering ............................................................................................. 163 Traffic-shaping .............................................................................................. 167 AS Path Filtering & De-peering ..................................................................... 173 MPLS: Expanding the Scope of Traffic Management ................................... 185 Chapter V. Conclusions and Future Directions .........................189 Lessons of History ........................................................................................ 190 Disclosure as an Instrument of Reform......................................................... 195 Appendix A – IXmaps ...................................................................205 Appendix B – Tier-1 Networks.....................................................207 Appendix C – Sample Weekly Routing Table Report ................214 Appendix D – Autonomous Systems ..........................................227 References ....................................................................................237 x List of Figures Figure 1. Internet timeline. p. 55. Figure 2. OSI Layered Model. p. 61. Figure 3. MPLS logical topology. p. 187. 1 Introduction: A New Internet Era The reliability of data transmission across the global public Internet is being compromised by the expanding use of traffic filtering, traffic-shaping