Paper Review #4: Rethinking the design of the Internet: The end to end arguments vs. the brave new world

The paper presented an assessment of the Internet and the forces that are pushing the change of Internet today: a greater call for stable and reliable operation; new sophisticated applications that are consumer-based; motivation of Internet Service Providers (ISP) to enhanced their service in order to gain advantage over their competitors; the rise of third party involvement; the proliferation of less sophisticated users; and the new forms of computing and communication that call for new software structures. 

Much of the Internet’s design has been influenced by the end to end argument assuring accurate and reliable transfer of information across the network. It suggests that specific application level functions must not be built into the lower levels of the system (the core of the network). This principle have preserved the flexibility, generality and openness of the Internet leading to the introduction of new applications. 

However, the changing uses of the Internet may demand adjustment in its original design principle. The early Internet consists of a  group of mutually trusting users attached  to a transparent network. Today, the brave new world consists of a bigger user base seeking to attend to their own objectives. The loss of trust at different layers is one of the most fundamental change resulting to the involvement of third parties to mediate between end users.  Yet, another question will be on how to identify trustworthy third parties. Also, the increasing involvement of government and ISPs present a greater challenge as new mechanisms for enhancement and restriction of the use of Internet are implemented in the core of the network.

In another paper by Clark on the design philosophy of the early Internet, privacy and security were not considered in the fundamental goals behind the architecture of Internet. These new requirements that are now emerging forces us to rethink the original design. It may be more complex than what was anticipated back then but it only proves the great impact of Internet in our society.

Reference:

 David D. Clark, Rethinking the design of the Internet: The end to end argument vs the brave new world, 2000

David D. Clark, The Design Philosophy of the DARPA Internet Protocols, 1988