[Related release and early coverage here, here and here.- CZ]

 

I attended the Federal Communication Commission’s en banc hearing a couple of weeks back on network management issues.  On the whole, I actually thought the dialogue and discussion were enlightening.  One of the things we often don’t appreciate when it comes to the new world of convergence is that the network providers and the applications providers don’t always understand what is going on in each other’s worlds.  Information and Communications Technology (ICT) is a complex mix of thousands of networks, probably even more applications and a variety of hardware and software configurations and protocols.   The Internet, which is today at the heart of how communications and information technologies connect and interact, is a fast changing and complex environment and it is more important than ever that players from all sectors in this complex world find ways to communicate and exchange ideas and concepts.

 

Many of those who appeared at the en banc made the point that addressing network congestion and improving broadband connectivity are not simple matters.   Adding capacity can certainly help and Verizon’s FiOS fiber to the home deployment is a part of the mix of things that can promote better connections.  But capacity alone can’t solve all problems.  As many at the hearing pointed out, it is simply not economically feasible to put in enough capacity to handle the most extreme usage scenarios that can be imagined. And problems like jitter are not really addressed by simply adding capacity.

 

Many of those who testified pointed out that the complex mix of applications and networks that is a part of the Internet’s fabric today suggest that work needs to be done to find ways to better integrate rapidly changing applications with the way networks operate.  The point is that the way applications work and how consumers use them is an important part of helping make broadband connections work better.  

 

That is why Verizon has taken a leadership role in a new task force under the sponsorship of the Distributed Computing Industry Association that is committed to helping improve the network functionality of one of the more popular sets of application protocols called peer-to-peer protocols or P2P.  The task force, called the P4P Working Group under the leadership of co-chairs Doug Pasko, Verizon senior technologist, and Laird Popkin the CTO for Pando, includes over 50 companies and organizations.  In part, its goal is to get the applications network and technology experts together to exchange ideas and really understand how P2P applications are being used and are evolving.  The working group is trying to use this information to find ways to improve the functionality of P2P.  As Doug notes, P2P is now being used not just by individuals to exchange files but also by commercial providers such as NBC for the downloading of video content.  Even the government is using P2P for content distribution.  Check out the NASA web site for an example of what I mean.

 

In a news release today, Doug points out that the task force has already made progress. In preliminary tests, they appear to have succeeded in improving the efficiency of P2P technology and reducing the negative impacts it can have on networks.  This is good news and demonstrates that industry working together can work out many of the problems that will inevitably crop up as the Internet continues to evolve.

 

On the whole, I think there was more agreement at the en banc hearing than many might have expected.  In the wake of the hearing, I think it is heartening that industry and technology players are working together to find ways to make technologies like P2P, that have come in for a lot of criticism but hold much promise, work better for consumers and integrate more effectively with networks.