Achieving Connectivity from the Edge Bob Frankston

A Bob Frankston Presentation

Achieving Connectivity from the EdgeBob Frankston

A Bob Frankston Presentation

Changing the Horse you Rode in on

A Bob Frankston PresentationA Bob Frankston Presentation

Dagnabit: 15 minute vs. “reality”

• So many stakeholders in the status quo!

• Silos are barriers to entry, you need it to be difficult!

• Real opportunity comes from decoupling

• You need to understand the technology to transcend it

• The Post Office has mastered routing, why can’t we?

• Yet we think the Internet is just another TV channel


Preparing to understand

• What is the value of a bit such as this one “1”?

• What is the capacity of this piece of wire?

• If you can answer these questions you don’t get it!

• The value is in using the network, not the network itself.

• Once you’ve defined a service you’ve locked in your assumptions.

• Moore’s law: based on decoupling marketplaces

• If we didn’t know better …

• But we do – the Internet is a very effective demo!


It’s so darn easy to network☺☻☺☻!

• Home Networks• They are not networks – just copper and radios (rarely fiber)

• The devices use physical transports to facilitate networking

• As a result:

• The speed has gone from 2kbps 1Gbps, Gbps switch $50!

• It costs very little to install and essentially nothing to operate

• Caveat

• It should be far easier and will be!

• In 1995 home networking was never going happen.

• We are supposed to be getting it via the STB n-tuple plays

• I made sure home networks were not a profit center.


• Interconnecting neighborhoods is trivial and V1’s been done• We already do it the hard way – home run connectivity

• Without path dependence all access points add to coverage

• Distance is easy• My House to Boston “peering” point (AKA I-90 entrance)

• Thence Seattle (AKA I-90 exit)

• That’s it folks. Done. More provisioning than routing.

• And cheap• We already have the copper, fiber and radios! 300× in Newton!

• The Post Office has been routing for thousands of years!The Post Office has been routing for thousands of years!• They don’t confuse naming with addressing!

And it scales “I-90” routing


Government vs. Userment

• We must stakeholders, not indentured tenants.

• Positive Sum Ownership (of the Bit Commons)• Nonexclusive!

• Contribute and get even more in return (network effect)

• Ownership at scale• Your home network is yours

• Your community network is done by the community

• Spanning connectivity may be national or global

• Simplicity at scale• At the edge: Complex policy decisions about relationships

• Avoid policy for spanning connection: Just provision


Key Idea 1: Networking not networks

• Networking is something we do – Andy Lippmann (MIT)• We can use any means available

• We can innovate in any way

• The power of decoupling – assume relationships and paths

• Telecom is now about little except creating billable events• Redundant broadband for containing bits

• Phone companies do not create phone calls

• Cable: 2Mbps HDTV over IP is better than over “cable”!

• Makes promise it cannot keep – it doesn’t control the network!

• Devices can do telephony but they aren’t telephones!


Key Idea 2: The Opportunity Dynamic

• The Internet is about discovering what is possible• If you don’t rely on promises, you can’t be charged for them

• Demand creates supply

• If we aren’t constrained by the past perfect

• Digital is a great facilitator

• Telecom is about delivering only what we already have• Every bit has an pre-assigned value without context

• Depends on the myth that bits and ideas are scarce!

• We already know better!


Telecom is a Failed idea

• Based on• The accidental properties of analog signaling

• The notions that monopolies are smarter than markets

• We keep it alive• The FCC’s Regulatorium fights reality

• People still think phone calls come from a phone company

• A myriad of stakeholders including many at this conference

• Mostly ignorance• The idea that we can’t drive or do our own networking

• A failure to understand the Internet beyond YouTube

• Malthusian zero sum economics


Telecom is not sustainable

• http://www.frankston.com/?name=AssuringScarcity

• Routing is hard because it is about managing scarcity!

• The bit commons has effectively unlimited abundance• The Internet is not a consumable, we create capacity

• Network effect means commons is far greater than slivers

• Abundance means you can’t tax services to fund transport• Incremental cost of email, VoIP etc is effectively zero.

• End-to-End constraint means you can’t charge for better• Provider doesn’t control the path

• It’s a canal across an ocean of bits – not a viable business!

http://www.frankston.com/?name=AssuringScarcity


Telecom Connectivity

• Telecom as a Service is the problem• If you fund the infrastructure out of service revenue

• Abundance is a threat – More “Internet” less revenue

• You have to monetize the network, not the use of the

• Telecom defines and limits our ability to communicate!

• It’s not about fiber, it’s about market structure• The service model is inherently dysfunctional.

• Muni-bells are bells – it’s not about FTTH, it’s about opportunity!

• Infrastructure funding aligns incentives and gives us abundance

• Why are we fixated on speed and not connectivity?


The FCC can play a positive role

• Remove legacy barriers to local ownership• Recognize that we don’t need to support carriers

• Benign neglect – don’t extend the Regulatorium

• Remove business restrictions such as “cable content” rules

• Understand connectivity and fund research

• Don’t accept “Stole it fair and square”

• Don’t give us “broadband”, give us Internet Opportunity.

• And benign Neglect: Most problems will solve themselves• “Spectrum” will not have value if we have connectivity

• Complex routing and telco control is self-defeating

• Monetizing bits is a failed idea


We have met the enemy …

• And it is us – Pogo

• Example: If you have copper you have DSL 24×7• And 100% wireless coverage to boot

• It’s not about speed – it’s about our lives & our ec

• But instead we beg for more broadband• We mean “More of that there Internet Channel”

• Carriers hear – more delivery pipes with a 1% tithe

• Or they think they can monetize bits a la Genuity.

• And we get more Bells & Muni-Bells

• It’s not about just watching TV• It’s about mundane use of connectivity for our day to day lives!


The Biggest Problem

• We have a perfect usable Internet yet• We think it’s about YouTube

• Cities have multiple special infrastructures and private fiber

• They pay for phone calls and all sorts of special services

• They have toy cable TV stations and rather than video servers

• They don’t expect to use the abundant gigabit connectivity

• And we are disconnected everywhere but in our own homes!!

• Something is very very wrong.• We have a perfectly good Internet but we ignore it!

• We’ve paid for it and yet think we have to pay again and again

• We think freedom is a faster broad band.


Let’s stop being stupid!

• Telecom is not viable so why try so hard to preserve it

• The infrastructure(V1) exists but is unused! Cost is <<$0

• It’s not just a TV channel, it’s infrastructure!

• So let’s make a deal• We get infrastructure and can align incentives

• The shareholders escape with their hides and some money

• Like Divestiture 1 but done right.

• Like Divestiture 1 – changes happens when it must

• Or we can deny ourselves trillion dollars in value

• But it’s also about our lives and safety (9/11 and 911)


And on with the show

• Apologies for the interruption.

• You may now resume monetizing Ptolemy's telecom.

• Back to the past already in progress …

An eComm 2008 presentation –

http://eCommMedia.com for more

Achieving Connectivity from the Edge Bob Frankston

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