[cooperation-wg] "How the Internet works and ..."

In message <A71A4D42-3FA7-4A9E-9A77-C57574885140 at gmail.com>, at 21:29:44 
on Sat, 22 Mar 2014, Gordon Lennox <gordon.lennox.13 at gmail.com> writes

>"For most of us, the internet is what you’re looking at right now—what you
>see on your web browser.

Which is fine for content on a web page, but you and I are looking at 
emails "right now".

>But the internet itself is comprised of the fiber optic cables, the 
>servers, the proverbial series of tubes, all owned by the companies 
>that built it. The content we access online is stored on servers and 
>transmitted through networks owned by lots of different groups, but the 
>magic of the internet protocol lets it all function as the integrated 
>experience we know and, from time to time, love."
>
>http://qz.com/187034/how-the-internet-works-and-why-its-impossible-to-know-what-makes-your-netflix-slow/
>
>Well maybe sort of...

It's more of a "where might the bottlenecks be", and focusses too much 
on a US-Centric view of national connectivity architecture. And the 
whole idea of "Tier 1" and "Tier 2" is so 1990's.

One part they leave out is contention (or under-capacity) *inside* the 
ISP at the end of the 'last mile'. Here in the UK it's that bit of the 
network which matters too.

My connectivity has a 'last mile' (unusually it is about a mile, for 
many subscribers it's more) over legacy copper, and I can pay to have 
better technology applied to squeeze more data down it; but then there's 
a '15 miles' to a regional hub and a '50 miles' to London, both of which 
are still *inside* my ISP and both of which affect the speed I observe 
[anecdotally it's how much the ISP spends on provisioning that '15 
miles' which is most crucial].

These three bottlenecks (1, 15, 50 miles) are an extra layer that 
affects all content of course, before we start wondering if there's a 
priority between that router in London and servers run by YouTube, 
Netflix, or BBC iPlayer.
-- 
Roland Perry