[(Internet Architecture and Innovation )] [Author: Barbara van Schewick] [Jul-2010]

by Barbara van Schewick

The Internet's remarkable growth has been fueled by innovation. Newapplications continually enable new ways of using the Internet, and new physicalnetworking technologies increase the range of networks over which the Internet canrun. Questions about the relationship between innovation and the Internet'sarchitecture have shaped the debates over open access to broadband networks, networkneutrality, nondiscriminatory network management, and future Internet architecture.In Internet Architecture and Innovation, Barbara van Schewick explores the economicconsequences of Internet architecture, offering a detailed analysis of how itaffects the economic environment for innovation. Van Schewick describes the designprinciples on which the Internet's original architecture was based--modularity, layering, and the end-to-end arguments--and shows how they shaped the originalarchitecture of the Internet. She analyzes in detail how the original Internetarchitecture affected innovation--in particular, the development of newapplications--and the how changing the architecture would affect this kind ofinnovation. Van Schewick concludes that the original architecture of the Internetfostered application innovation. Current changes that deviate from the Internet'soriginal design principles reduce the amount and quality of application innovation, limit users' ability to use the Internet as they see fit, and threaten theInternet's ability to realize its economic, social, cultural, and politicalpotential. If left to themselves, network providers will continue to change theinternal structure of the Internet in ways that are good for them but notnecessarily for the rest of us. Government intervention may be needed to save thesocial benefits associated with the Internet's original design principles.

Genres: Technology

Unknown Binding

First published June 18, 2010

Reviews

[Robt. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good and important.