Net Neutrality - Foolish, ignorant or disingenuous?
The popular press and news feeds have been full of stories about advocates of “net neutrality” testifying to congressional committees, lobbying the federal government and railing against the big ISPs over the past while. Not much mention of arguments against net neutrality, though. It’s hard to decide whether those arguing for net neutrality are foolish, ignorant or disingenuous.
Let’s begin with some definitions. When someone demands “net neutrality”, they usually mean that the network must not discriminate between applications being carried in IP packets; that identical transmission characteristics (throughput, delay, number of errors, etc.) are to be provided for all packets regardless of what is being carried in them. They claim (correctly) that this is not the case at present, that the network service provider is “throttling” certain applications, “slowing down” or “shaping” traffic and that this, in their opinion, must stop. They sound the rallying cry “the net should be free”.
What a load of hogwash.
But are these arguments foolish, ignorant or disingenuous? Hard to decide:
If you should know the answer to these questions about MPLS, but don’t, this is the course for you:
Course 110 IP, VoIP and MPLS for the
Non-Engineering Professional is the “next” course in our Core Training series, covering only newer technologies: virtually all aspects of IP networks and services.
Designed for non-engineers, this training course will give you the solid, vendor-independent foundation knowledge necessary to deal with IP telecom network projects and IP voice and data applications with confidence.
If you want to know the answers to these questions, or you should know the answer to these questions, but don’t, this is the course for you:
When an organization like AT&T or TELUS says it “has an MPLS network” and sells “MPLS services”,
- What exactly does that mean?
- Just what is an MPLS service anyway? What does it do? Who uses it? What for?
- Can you tell me two different ways MPLS service is different than Internet service?
- What benefit does that bring to the customer?
- Does it cost more? Better yet, is it costed the same way as Internet service?
- How do you connect to MPLS service?
- What is the technology and business environment for MPLS service going to in 2015?
I think you’ll agree that knowledge set is career-enhancing knowledge. We often tell people “if you want a guaranteed job, be an expert in MPLS”. Here’s a great place to start!
And this is only one part of this intensive, three-day leadership and technology development course!
You will also learn the workings of SIP and softswitches; the nuts-and-bolts of packetized voice and its protocols; Layer 2, VLANs and 10 Mb/s - 40 Gb/s Ethernet services; IP routing; the ISP business and more.
In three days, you’ll get up to speed, demystify jargon and buzzwords, fill the gaps, understand the technologies, the underlying ideas and how it all fits together… knowledge you can’t get from trade magazines or salespeople.
This investment will be repaid many times over, eliminating frustration at buzzword-filled meetings, increasing your efficiency, and helping ensure you make the right choices. IP, VoIP and MPLS is an essential knowledge set going forward in telecommunications.
This professional training course will give you the solid, vendor-independent foundation necessary to deal with IP telecom network projects and IP voice and data applications with confidence.
Get this career-enhancing knowledge today! more info
Attend Course 110 May 18-20 and get 50% off Course 101 June 1-3. Transferable!
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Course 110: IP, VoIP and MPLS for Non-Engineers is the second stage of our “core training”, covering virtually all aspects of IP networks, Voice over IP, VPNs, IP security, SIP, MPLS, carrier services, connecting to carriers and more. This totally up-to-date course will give you the solid, vendor-independent foundation knowledge necessary to deal with IP network projects and IP voice and data applications with confidence. |
Blowout Special! Attend Course 110 in Santa Clara May 18-20 and get Course 101 in Santa Clara June 1-3 at half price! A $695 value! Even better: it’s transferable. We’ll give you a coupon anyone can use! |
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| Getting up to speed on IP is essential career- and productivity-enhancing knowledge that you can’t afford to be without if you want to go forward in the telecom business… and this one-time offer makes it easier than ever to benefit from Teracom’s world-renowned training. Hurry! This offer ends very soon and will not be repeated. |
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Soft Switches
The term soft switch is not defined in a standard… meaning that marketing departments at different equipment and software manufacturers use the same term to describe different things.
A switch, in its simplest form, is a device that causes communications to happen from one point to one other particular point, often when there are multiple “other” points to choose from.
A traditional Central Office (CO) telephone switch might be called a “hard” switch, since it has physical line cards that terminate loops. The switching software running on the computer which is the CO switch directs traffic between a line card and a trunk or between two line cards during a phone call.
The term soft switch is used to mean a computer running switching software that does not have telephone line cards – the communications are instead directed to the correct destination by routers routing packets, a software function.
Course 101 certification exam (auto-scoring) free sample
We’ve posted a new free online resource: a portion of the
Course 101 online certification exam.
To access this or any of our vast selection of free samples,
you may be asked to sign in or sign up for myTeracom.
It’s free, easy, secure and confidential.
It gives your score automatically!
This sample certification exam is part of Teracom’s quality all-inclusive training
- along with the course pages previews and/or DVD-video and CBT previews,
it is a good way to assess the level and quality of Teracom Training
- plus, assess your current knowledge level to help you decide you do need training!
New schedule - Spring 2009
We are finalizing the new schedule for Spring 2009.
Check out the new sessions scheduled so far:
Course 101: Telecom, Datacom and Networking for Non-Engineers
Course 130: Understanding Voice over IP
BOOT CAMP: Course 101+130 together - save 30%
Course 110: Understanding IP Telecom: IP, VoIP and MPLS for Non-Engineers
Don’t miss Course 101 and 130 together in TRINIDAD being held in conjunction with
CANTO, the Carribean Association of National Telecommunications Organizations
Is the Internet a Public Utility?
Reading articles and blogs about Net Neutrality, one often sees the justification for government interference in the operation of IP networks to allow people stealing copyrighted works using bittorrent (the net neutrality advocates) to consume bandwidth 24/7 at line speed “because the Internet is a public utility.”
It ain’t. The Internet is a business.
Net neutrality - not. VideoTutorial on Service Level Agreements, traffic shaping and traffic policing
watch in higher quality on youtube’s site
When someone demands “net neutrality”, they usually mean that the network must not discriminate between applications being carried in IP packets; that identical transmission characteristics (throughput, delay, number of errors, etc.) are to be provided for all packets regardless of what is being carried in them. They claim (correctly) that this is not the case at present, that the network service provider is “throttling” certain applications, “slowing down” or “shaping” traffic (the correct term is “policing”) and that this, in their opinion, must stop.
This video tutorial explains Service Level Agreements, traffic profiles, transmission characteristics, and how Differentiated Services (Diff-Serv) is implemented to be able to provide different transmission characteristics for different kinds of traffic - the EXACT OPPOSITE of net neutrality.
It is taken from Teracom’s DVD video V9 Understanding Voice over IP 2: Voice Packetization • Voice Quality • Codecs, Jitter and Packet Loss • Diff-Serv • Network QoS with MPLS
ALL “NET NEUTRALITY” ARTICLES:
Net Neutrality - Foolish, ignorant or disingenuous?
Net Neutrality II: If the power company allowed this, your electrical bill would double
Is the Internet a Public Utility?
Visit Teracom Training Institute for more information on telecommunications training and voip training
New session: IP Telecom - with certification - November 12-13-14 in Washington DC
| New session of Course 110 Understanding IP Telecom: IP, VoIP and MPLS for Non-Engineers scheduled:This is the “next” course, building beyond our core training course 101, for those who need to get up to speed on new IP telecom technologies like MPLS and VoIP. Like all of our training, we concentrate on explaining the jargon, buzzwords, fundamentals, mainstream technologies and most importantly, the underlying ideas, and how it all works together. | ||
| This course will give you the solid, vendor-independent foundation knowledge necessary to deal with IP telecom network projects and IP voice and data applications with confidence. | ||
| - Join us in Washington DC, steps from the White House November 12-13-14 for this IP certification course for non-engineers. |
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| - Course fee includes certification exam and Certified IP Telecom Analyst (CNA) diploma. Framed diploma is available. |
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| - Earlybird special: register and pay by September 30 and we’ll ship you a hardcopy of our very popular 400-page reference book Telecom 101 3rd edition in advance of the course. |
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Net Neutrality II: If the power company allowed this, your electrical bill would double.
Following up on a previous discussion, a demand for “net neutrality” usually means a demand that the network must not discriminate between applications being carried in IP packets; that identical transmission characteristics (throughput, delay, number of errors, etc.) are to be provided for all packets regardless of what is being carried in them.
But a demand for “net neutrality” is usually also wrapped together with a demand by these same people for no metering, no usage charges. This would mean that users who are continuously transmitting and receiving packets would pay the same flat rate as someone who is paying only for a typical traffic profile.
If this principle were applied to electricity, it would be like having no electricity meter. Everyone pays the same, regardless how much power they use. The problem: if you’re one of the 99% of normal users, you would have to pay DOUBLE what you normally would, to cover the costs of the 1% of users constantly drawing 200 amps 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.
Here’s how that would work:
Read more