Telecom Industry Does Not Survive Without DPI

Implications: 1.      Ethernet and TCP/IP were designed for use in a friendly environment.   2.      In other words, there has been a fundamental assumption that all of the attachments to the Ethernet connection were going to be playing by the rules. 3.      That idea is not necessarily the case as the parameters have been greatly extended out – and without the use of Deep Packet Inspection (DPI), there would be an untenable, chaotic situation.

Analysis:  Network engineering is about managing the bandwidth that is needed.   From that perspective, it is a scary thought that in essence, anybody’s PC connected to a network into a server can consume 100 percent of its available bandwidth.  The RBOCs, such as AT&T, and the MSOs (admittedly, DOCSIS does help with the problem), such as Comcast, have not designed their networks for full-bore activity out of every customer.  That is totally putting aside the quandary that the predominant use of peer-to-peer traffic is the distribution of copyrighted content.  

Service providers are going to want to give all of their customers the best experience possible.  It seems that at a bare minimum, an operator should be able to rate limit peer-to-peer during peak times.  During non-peak times, in the wee hours of the morning, it could be wide open.   ISPs are also very sensitive to speed tests as well as to applications that are potentially harmful.  If net neutrality is extended completely, those providers that have turned off Port 25, will be forced to turn it back on.  Subscribers without spam and virus protection could turn this into a bout – and now millions of spam mails would be generated without any recourse.  

In addition to the consequences of enforcing a non-market driven solution for customers, net neutrality is a great pipe dream that is not technologically feasible.  While this senseless debate over the concept continues, carriers still have to grapple with the costly proposition of providing a reliable, robust data service.  Every year, billions of dollars are spent worldwide to support customers.  And one of the important tools that has become a fixture in networks is DPI equipment to manage their networks effectively.  Even with DPI, there is apparently a continuous battle with the large users, such as the BitTorrent ones.  As they detect that the carriers have figured out how they are characterizing their packets, they will change them – the same kind of battles that the ISPs have had with the hackers and the virus folks.   

Both the MSOs and the RBOCs are running a packet-based, Ethernet service.  If the industry stays on the same growth projection as has been seen over the last year, it gets to be unmanageable because there is just too much equipment to put in the network to make the whole thing work well.  So, unless these service providers are allowed to do something rational in dealing with the dramatic average bandwidth growth per customer, such as in using DPI to create a tiered rate system, all of these companies will be forced out of business.  Given the current cost structure, they simply cannot afford all of the network requirements.  At a time when there is a real push to reduce the cost of the network, these carriers would still need to figure out how to increase the bandwidth by an order of magnitude.