A Technical Approach to Net Neutrality
A recent statement by AT&T CEO Ed Whitacre sparked considerable fear in the public that the Internet may not be open any more: the ISPs dictate which sites/applications flourish and which flounder. The statement triggered the heated debate on net neutrality and ignited the battle to enact net neutrality legislation. However, by the date of writing, all attempts to pass net neutrality laws have failed. This paper states our proposition on net neutrality: ISPs should not be able to discriminate against packets based on contents, application types, or packet sources or destinations that are not their own customers; but they are eligible to offer differentiated services to their customers. We present a technical design that aims to achieve this definition of net neutrality. Our design prevents an ISP from deterministically harming an application, a competing service, or singling out an individual innovator for extortion.
