Reader Forum: Revisiting network neutrality and the IPX

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I saw a recent comment to a network neutrality story equating this term to “fuzzy math.” I believe it. The more I read about the various sides of this complex, the more there is no clear answer, nor a clear picture of where it will lead us. Furthermore, for the mobile (or wireless) IP world, there is no clear picture of how network neutrality will be applied or not applied. The definition of network neutrality is different, depending on who is crafting the definition. Both sides certainly attempt to demonize the other side. In fact, I’ve gotten more than one scary email like the one stating that “Google (or Verizon or AT&T or someone else) plans to kill web in Internet takeover agenda” and that Google, the CIA, the NSA, Bilderberg Group and others are all in concert with one another to completely take over the Internet, run (ruin?) our lives and more. This issue has become increasingly polarized with no real substance. A good overview about network neutrality was recently published by Forbes.
I’ve given several talks and a webinar covering the IPX (IP exchange) ecosystem and how it can benefit mobile operators, fixed operators, service providers, and enterprises. One analogy that I use is to think of the IPX as a multi-tenant “backhaul” (or backbone) network – a private network that these service providers can use, with managed and guaranteed QoS, bandwidth, in a highly secure environment, that is completely separate from the Internet. In almost all cases, the questions about network neutrality are asked and is the IPX affected and if so, how.
Let’s talk about this as it is important to distinguish what the IPX is and is not. First off, the IPX is not accessible to the public. It is not accessible to the World Wide Web. By all definitions, the IPX is a private network, with a private address space. But it is a network, built for the benefit of providers of service – whether that service provider is a mobile operator, a fixed operator, or an enterprise. All of these entities operate various types of broadband services – some of them private, some of them for the benefit of their subscribers.
Let’s look at a mobile operator. They’ve build out a 3G network based on hundreds of radio towers and international standards. This 3G radio access network is connected to the Internet backbone through high bandwidth gateways, so their subscribers can reach virtually any public IP address out there. Fixed providers of services also operate a network – but theirs could be built on fiber, cable, or some other transmission medium – also connected to the Internet could through high bandwidth gateways. Then there are other types of providers of service. While these service providers may not provide network access services for their subscribers, customers, or public, they do provide a service. They too, as well as enterprises, or financial institutions, can benefit from the IPX, as a means of transporting their data (whatever that may be) between their cloud-based processing and these network providers in order to reach the end user.
Of course, these service providers could use private networks or the Internet itself to transport their data to subscribers. Many of them do today. But, there are problems with those approaches such as security, expense and quality of service, despite the best of intentions. Many of these issues will disappear if the IPX is used.
There are some that will say that this gives the IPX participants an advantage over other service providers who must rely on the Internet to interconnect to services or clouds. I don’t believe that is so. There will be non-operator entities who participate in the IPX ecosystem – like Research In Motion with their BlackBerry e-mail connectivity between their cloud services and multiple operators. There will be others with a similar of model. The services could be a variety of IP services – financial, health, consumer, video, television streaming, and conferencing, to name a few. But, it must be “sold” to the network providers for the benefit of their subscribers. There is not a guarantee that every network provider – fixed or mobile – will accept every enterprise out there.
One of the benefits of the IPX ecosystem is that it is a managed community of players – the most important of them are the service providers – the provider of network services: mobile and fixed operators. Through these players is how services reach the end user – me and you. Generally, service providers want to enable their subscribers to do as much as possible and they want to outdo their competitors, in order to attract more subscribers, to generate more revenue (and profit). They can then invest in their networks, to keep subscribers happy, not lose subscribers to their competitors, and so forth. It is very market driven and works. The IPX is one tool at their disposal.
The notion that network service providers such as mobile operators or fixed operators should not be able to provide their own content or services to consumers, on their own networks is absurd. There are some who want to regulate IP network providers – both fixed and mobile – to a pure dumb-bit-pipe and nothing more. If that were the case then this would even prohibit a mobile phone provider from offering voice and messaging services that leverage their own IP networks and that connection to the rest of the ecosystem via an IPX. They will do this for voice and other advanced media services. In fact, at some point in the future, the IPX will ultimately replace the legacy SS7 network cloud.
The IPX is not used to reach the World Wide Web, but it could be used as a transport between an app and a data cloud to serve that app. The IPX is not part of the “last mile” between the subscriber and content or services over the Internet; instead, it is a specialized connection between network provider and the application server or cloud. And finally, the IPX is not a second Internet, like some might have you believe. It is a new, specialized type of backbone infrastructure that has a variety of quality attributes that will ultimately benefit everyone in the mobile economy. Therefore, in terms of a classic network neutrality definition, the IPX should not be a factor.