Revisiting the internet hourglass
Bruce S. Davie · 2009
The threat of commoditization poses a real challenge for service providers. Offering only a "plain vanilla" IP packet delivery service limits the options for competitive differentiation. Conversely, embedding additional functionality in the network carries a number of risks -- decreased robustness and increased complexity, for example. The key to addressing this challenge is the careful selection of appropriate functionality to embed in the network. Functions should be added to the network only when they offer value to a wide range of applications, and they should not inhibit the correct operation of applications that do not need them. This talk addresses the question of how novel, useful functions might be embedded "inside" the network, and how best to evaluate candidate functions for inclusion.