Father [ one of the] of internet warns against Net Neutrality

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Richard Bennett <richard () bennett com>
Date: January 18, 2007 9:11:29 PM EST
To: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Subject: Interesting People fodder
Reply-To: richard () bennett com

Here's an article your Interesting People list might be interested  
in. Your name is mentioned, as is mine.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/01/18/kahn_net_neutrality_warning/
Father of internet warns against Net NeutralityNo Kahn do
By Andrew Orlowski → More by this author
Published Thursday 18th January 2007 21:19 GMT

Robert Kahn, the most senior figure in the development of the  
internet, has delivered a strong warning against "Net Neutrality"  
legislation.
Speaking to an audience at the Computer History Museum in Mountain  
View, California at an event held in his honour, Kahn warned against  
legislation that inhibited experimentation and innovation where it  
was needed.

Kahn rejected the term "Net Neutrality", calling it "a slogan". He  
cautioned against dogmatic views of network architecture, saying the  
need for experimentation at the edges shouldn't come at the expense  
of improvements elsewhere in the network.
(Kahn gently reminded his audience that the internet was really about  
interconnecting networks, a point often lost today).

"If the goal is to encourage people to build new capabilities, then  
the party that takes the lead is probably only going to have it on  
their net to start with and it's not going to be on anyone else's  
net. You want to incentivize people to innovate, and they're going to  
innovate on their own nets or a few other nets,"

"I am totally opposed to mandating that nothing interesting can  
happen inside the net," he said.

So called "Neutrality" legislation posed more of a danger than  
fragmentation, he concluded.

With the exception of Google's man in Washington DC, Vint Cerf (with  
whom Kahn developed TCP/IP), most of the senior engineers responsible  
for developing the packet switched internetworking of today oppose  
"Neutrality" legislation. Dave Farber, often called the grandfather  
of the internet, has been the most prominent critic.

Engineers fear rash legislation would inhibit the ability of systems  
engineers to improve latency and jitter issues needed to move data at  
speed.

"The internet is still pretty fragile today," said Kahn.

Life of Kahn
Kahn's history as protocol designer is a minor note, compared to his  
role as a politically astute manager and advocate at key moments in  
the development of the technologies responsible for the internet.

When he embarked on a career in networking, peers and seniors tried  
to talk him out of what was then considered a crazy choice.

"People thought I was throwing my career away. People thought time  
sharing wouldn't take off and if it did it would only be in a few  
places, so wouldn't have commercial values," he said. "If I had  
listened to many people in the field I would not have gone into  
networking."

Working on colour TV, automatic game control loops, information  
theory, and even microwaves were all considered "cooler" than  
networking.

Later, he found DARPA was a reluctant sponsor. The US Department of  
Defense's research agency didn't have many computers when Kahn  
arrived in 1972 and couldn't see much of a use for them.

Technical history is often seen as an inevitable progression,  
punctuated by moments of individual genius, but the gentle backroom  
cajoling rarely gets mentioned.

It was certainly needed. Ironically, when Kahn arrived at DARPA it  
was to take a break from networks, and work on factory automation  
research. But the hype du jour, Artificial Intelligence, was sweeping  
the land and Congress cut the budget for his project. Kahn began to  
reassemble a team of packet switching veterans.

In the early 80s he managed the gradual, and awkward transition from  
private defense project to public network, fighting off the  
cumbersome, bureaucratically-devised OSI model of internetworking.

"I fought a ten year battle to protect the name 'Internet'", he says.  
"It cost a million dollars and eventually the name prevailed - but we  
could have lost the internet."

The CRNI (Corporation for National Research Initiatives) was really  
essential to winning that one, he said.

Kahn urged today's engineers to "Think Big... we are at the very  
early stage of a revolution that's going to take most of the 21st  
century". He rejects any labelling as the "father of the internet",  
saying credit for its growth can be shared by the entire industry.

You can find a video of his talk here. It's a 230MB download in  
Windows Media format only, and there's no transcript yet.

Thanks to veteran internet engineer Richard Bennett (who has plenty  
to say about the subject) for the heads up. ®

RB


-- Richard Bennett

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