QUIC as a solution to protocol ossification

Posted Jan 30, 2018 14:36 UTC (Tue) by farnz (subscriber, #17727)
In reply to: QUIC as a solution to protocol ossification by nim-nim
Parent article: QUIC as a solution to protocol ossification

Ultimately, the dumb network versus smart network argument goes back to IP versus telco protocols. ATM, Frame Relay and other telco protocols all have a smart network, full of middle boxes in control of a chunk of the network. IP as it was when IP replaced ATM, Frame Relay etc had a dumb network with all the intelligence in the end points.

The ossification that Google harps on about is what happens when people who think that ATM should have won because it has the smart network try to force IP into the telco world - the trouble is that the populace chose IP, not ATM, partly because public networks have a long standing habit of using the smarts in their network to drive protocol design in ways favourable to their pockets, and the populace would prefer a dumb commodity network to a smart premium network.

However, network developers don't like this - when the difference between your gigabit service and mine is just price and congestion, there's not a lot to choose between us. When you can have premium "smart" services like per-packet CoS as well, you can find ways to charge more for the same service.