What is Reasonable Network Management?

There has been a great deal of concern about language in the recent FCC call for rule making on network neutrality.  The FCC notice is intended to developed a definition of net neutrality along the lines proposed in the rule making.  The concern is directed at language that would permit network operators (I always use the words network operators because these rules would apply to Internet and non-Internet networks) to conduct ‘reasonable network management.  The Ars Technica article makes one glaring error; there is nothing about ‘tiering‘ that violates net neutrality, but it is a bad idea for a lot of other reasons.   First, here are the principles the FCC has offered for public comment:

“Under the draft proposed rules, subject to reasonable network management, a provider of broadband Internet access service:

1. would not be allowed to prevent any of its users from sending or receiving the lawful content of the user’s choice over the Internet;

2. would not be allowed to prevent any of its users from running the lawful applications or using the lawful services of the user’s choice;

3. would not be allowed to prevent any of its users from connecting to and using on its network the user’s choice of lawful devices that do not harm the

network;

4. would not be allowed to deprive any of its users of the user’s entitlement to competition among network providers, application providers, service

providers, and content providers;

5. would be required to treat lawful content, applications, and services in a non-discriminatory manner; and

6. would be required to disclose such information concerning network management and other practices as is reasonably required for users and

content, application, and service providers to enjoy the protections specified in this rule making.”

Now first of all, let’s give the FCC a great big hand for doing such a fine job putting the definition of network neutrality into words, and going much further than most folks would have imagined.  Now, the way the FCC phrased it, they made all six principles subject to the prefatory phrase ‘reasonable network management.’  That is not the way I would do it.  Only principle 5 (OK maybe 4, too) needs to be made subject to reasonable network management, because none of the rest of the  principles implicate any kind of network management at all.  I would like to see the Commission simply take the phrase ’subject to reasonable network management’ and move it down to principle 5.  Then there would be no confusion that any of the other principles would somehow be compromised by allowing the network operators to ‘manage’ them.

If we can define network neutrality in six pithy phrases, I don’t see why we can’t take a whack at defining reasonable network management in a few pithy phrases also.  My framework for this is based on my research concerning comparative telecommunications laws, and specifically the European Union Framework Directive and Access Directive.  I’m not going to dissect the EU directives here, but I wanted to give some background.

The basic principles for reasonable network management:

1.  The management must be directed to traffic on the network.  It must be directly related to a specific, identifiable traffic problem existing on the network.  If audited, the operator should be able to show what the problem was; it is an identified situation.  This excludes peremptory management, for example taking actions to prevent a traffic problem.  The correct action to peremptorily address traffic is to expand the capacity on the network.  The rule is addressed this way intentionally, so that a network operator will be forced to open or expand capacity to solve traffic congestion.   Network management must stop as soon as the congestion has cleared.

2.  The network operator cannot discriminate between one kind of data and another to management traffic congestion.  The operator must act to remove the congestion, not the data.

3.  To help improve service during periods of congestion, the operator can prioritize certain data.  For example, if an episode of congestion made it hard for voice data to travel over the network (thereby rendering some voice-over-IP apps inoperable), the operator could prioritize voice data.  But the operator cannot retard other data.  Actually, the scenario painted by US ISPs of slowing some data to somehow create some space (??) for other data to move faster, like on a freeway, just doesn’t make sense.  That is not how a data network works.  The analog between freeways and networks breaks down.

4.  The operator cannot act to improve the ‘user experience.’  Since the operator is handling data for all kinds of users, who are sending data as well as receiving it, the operator would have to pick and choose which users’ experience to improve.  Obviously, this can’t be done because how do you choose?  This may also violate the rule against peremptory management.   Network management must occur on the network, not at the user.

5.  All management must be transparent.  Operators are limited to the use of management that meets the technical standards and specifications laid down by the Commission.   Operators must provide a complete description of the methodology they use for network management to anyone who asks.

6.  A network operator cannot refuse network access based on ‘reasonable network management grounds.’ “Where obligations are imposed on operators that require them to meet reasonable requests for access to and use of networks elements and associated facilities, such requests should only be refused on the basis of objective criteria such as technical feasibility or the need to maintain network integrity.”  (EU Access Directive)  When you send a message to someone on another network, you are ‘accessing’ the network.

7.  Network operators cannot manage the network in any way that distorts competition.  For example, they cannot refuse access or slow down access from some competitors, but not others.  They cannot favor their own traffic over others’.

That is pretty much it.  If the FCC wants to define the terms of reasonable network management, I see no reason they cannot.  I strongly urge the Commission to regulate network management in a way that is consistent with the rest of the world.  There is no US Internet or EU Internet.  There is just an Internet, and network operators and users should be able to use it the same way wherever they are.

 

Bastille goes back and fixes the happy hour menu, a little

I can’t claim the credit, but they have put some of the favorite back on the HH menu, at HH prices. The portions are reduced, and fries no longer come with the lamb burger, but it’s a step in the right direction.

 

Rick Larsen opposes net neutrality

US Representative Rick Larsen, who represents northwest Washington State, Friday signed the anti-net neutrality letter shopped around by the telcos and cable cos.  The letter was shopped around to Democratic reps in the hopes of scaring off FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski.  In the letter,  the signers recite a litany of telco lies and misrepresentations.  For example, they attribute the growth of the Internet on ‘regulatory restraint,’ an allusion to the polices of Michael Powell, Reed Hundt and Kevin Martin.  But those policies slowed and eventually destroyed the growth of the Internet, so that now the US has one of the lowest Internet use rates of any developed country.  And the quality of our service is just about the worst in the developed world (slowest, most expensive) , again, thanks to regulatory restraint.

A least one signer has already made signs of his intent to possibly repudiate his signature on the letter. I guess in this age of the Internet, he had received assurances the telcos would block any comments about his signature. They can do that, right? Not yet, Rep. Jared Polis, sorry.  But we know where you want go, now.

It’s a surprise Larsen would sell out to the telco/cableco sock puppets.  His district used to have dozens of independent ISPs.  Now, there are nearly none, and the nascent high-tech industry that was developing in this beautiful area of Washington State is gone.  Larsen’s district suffers from lack of high-speed Internet service; I know because I’ve met with the leaders in the area.  Lack of quality Internet has hampered job creation and made it impossible to create or relocate the kind of jobs that would permit young people to remain in the area.  And the few success stories (Bellingham’s fiber to the industrial park project, San Juan County’s decision to build it themselves) are public efforts to get around the tail-dragging, dishonest, manipulative telcos.  Thanks Rick Larsen, you outed yourself as a telco sock puppet.

 

Bastille’s Chicken Dinner: Save your Money

I went to pick up a take out dinner of chicken from Bastille’s take out menu.  They don’t just accept an order for take-out.  They had to check to see if I could have a take out meal.  Since they are still skitchy about eat-in meals for un, I was pleased when they deemed me OK to have a take out meal.

First, you don’t actually get a half chicken. You get about a third of chicken.  A small breast and part of the thigh.  I assume they use the rest for sandwiches and stock.  The chicken is tender, and tiny, and extremely dry, and undercooked.  Since it is undercooked, you can’t eat all of it.  Potatoes good; the vegetable consist of a pice of onion.  For $18.   This is their signature meal.  I’ll never order it again.  What a waste.

 

Ballard Arson Fire

Well, Tuesday night was happnin’  I was walking back from the bar after a late night drink on the eve of the hottest day ever.  At about 12:15, I heard a women yelling, but I couldn’t figure out where it was coming from. (Above me, it turns out)  As I passed the last wood frame house on Ballard Avenue, I saw a small fire on the side porch.  I tried to stamp it out, but it was a gasoline fire and my little sandals weren’t cutting it.  The woman, Angelique, came down to the street with the fire extinguisher from her building, and another fellow put the fire out with that.  The fire department and the arson squad soon appeared.  Definitely arson, definitely the FD and police are keeping this quiet.  No publicity, no asking for information.  Do they already have a suspect?

 

Bastille Happy Hour: Almost Gone?

Bastille in Ballard, the newest ‘in’ place for new-to-Seattle hipsters and California rejects, has just about done away with their happy hour selections.  The Happy Hour remains, there are just fewer specials.

Bastille used to offer one of the better happy hours for the first few weeks it was open.  Moules and frites, Lamb burgers, Mac&Cheese, etc.  Now, just moules, no frites for $6.  No frites.  Frites are extra, $4 at happy hour.  So to get the ‘old’ half price moules and frites, regularly $12, now you pay $6 for the moules, and $4 for the frites, for $10, a discount of two bucks off full price (and a larger portion?)

Same for the half price lamb burger and fries, which used to be $6.  Now its $10 with the fries.  The mac and cheese is now reduced to a tiny little ramekin of a taste of mac & cheese’lette!   Used to be a decent plate of food.  And no discounted price anymore, you pig.   Removed completely from the happy hour menu is the falafel, and the poutine.  And the discounts all around are reduced.

Bastille has had major problems since opening.  It severely restricts the number of diners for dinners, leaving most folks stuck with over-priced appetizers in the bar area.  Dinner is essentially a reservations only affair, and even then they severely restrict the number of diners “because the kitchen can’t handle it”.  (I recently had dinner at Le Gourmand, because Bastille was too hard to get into!)  The fancy filtered water system (both still and gaseous) is not hooked up to the bar, so you can’t get that nice sparkling water in your drink.  The kitchen frequently runs out of food.  Service is mediocre or worse.  And of course, prices keep going up and the happy hour specials, which were a good way to entice people to try the food, are essentially gone.  And what is with smaller portions?

How long can Bastille keep going like this?  When it opened the restaurant was hailed for its reasonable prices, making it an affordable and frequent stop for locals.  Bastille has apparently decided that locals filling the place weren’t enough for them, so now they are going after the tourist crowd.  In a location way off the beaten path, with no parking, I say good luck. You will need it.

 

Atlantic Salmon?

Why does Moshi-Moshi serve Atlantic Salmon?  What’s up with that?

 

Another night wasted at Bastille

OK, I admit I was a total slut for Bastille, the new Seattle french restaurant.  But after a short but abusive relationship, I’m pretty much over it.

For the fourth time in two weeks, I was refused dinner service.  This time, I was sitting at the bar.  After failing to get the bartender’s attention for about an hour, I finally asked if I could order their chicken dinner and was told that I could only order from the bar menu.

Here is what Bastille needs NOW (like last week):

1. A back bar in the kitchen for filling orders of wine, champagne, beer, carafes, etc.  There is no reason these orders are being filled at the front bar, where the bartenders don’t have the time.

2.  The bartenders filling orders for the dining room means there is poor service for people sitting at the beautiful zinc bar.

3.  Not that you would want to because you don’t have the space, but you can’t order off the extensive dinner menu at the bar.   And since they won’t seat you in the dining room absent a reservation and, you know, lagniappe, then you are fucked.  Six times visiting this place and I still haven’t had a full meal entree there.

4.  Basically, only a few people can eat off the menu posted on the front window because you can’t get a seat.  So nice menu.  Too bad it is kind of a bait and switch situation.

5.  This is an extremely loud restaurant even when it is quiet.  WHY ARE THEY PLAYING MUSIC IN THE BACKGROUND??!!

6.  If they are really going to be a sports bar, they need another TV.

7.   Live music out on the patio tonight.  Too bad almost no one could hear it because it was only outside!!  The outside tables are set far apart, so there are fewer of them.  What a waste.   Although there were several empty tables.  Reserved I suppose.  No one asked if I wanted to sit there.  This is just a colossal management fuck up.

8.  Bastille Day should have been the biggest day yet.  But they have been successful at keeping the customers away in this ’soft opening’ (I thought that was a sex position?)  The place was not full and still the staff was barely able to manage.  They don’t have a first string wait staff and I can kinda see why now.  Are the better waiters staying away?  Do they know something?

9. The Bastille authentically recreates that Paris feel:  bad and surly service, abusive wait staff and bartenders.  Ignores singles totally.  Singles have to sort of elbow their way in.  But good food so everyone ignores the bad service.

Except Seattle has many excellent french restaurants where you don’t have endure abuse; Viola, Cafe Presse, Le Pichet, Anita’s, 911 Supreme, etc.  I appreciate Bastille has spent a butt load of money and created a wonderful environment.  But this restaurant is going in the wrong direction, getting worse each week instead of better.  C’est la vie.

 

Bunnie sends love to Connected Nation

Another brilliant post from Bunnie Reidel, a long-time advocate for the public interest.  This time she picks on Connected Nation (the favorite of Washington State Senator Jeanne Kohl-Welles):

“Meanwhile, just as the petting party is heating up, Verizon, Comcast, at&t (among others) are lobbying state legislatures to prohibit municipal broadband. At the front of the lobbying is Connected Nation, which counts Verizon, Comcast, at&t and the National Cable Telecommunications Association among its advisors, according to http://www.BNet.com.

Karl Bode of http://www.DSLReports.com is quoted as saying “[Connect America] takes state taxpayer funds under the pretense of effectively mapping state broadband services, but then acts by and large as an extension of the incumbents — obscuring data they don’t want public, while lobbying state lawmakers on carriers’ behalf.”

Mmmm…where have we seen that before? Can you say statewide cable franchising? $50 to the first person who connects Dick Armey with Connected Nation! No really, I will send you $50. ”

And I will up the ante and send you… a big attaboy!  Read more here

 

Behind the curtain bad-mouthing

It’s been disappointing and discouraging to learn that 36th District State Senator Jeanne Kohl-Welles has been engaging in an effort to attack my reputation, the work I do, and the progressive policies I advocate for.  Word comes second-hand from more than one person she has been button-holing that she wants to be sure that I do not advocate on behalf of the public interest in telecom and broadband issues, that I should stop blogging about her, and that I should cease my campaign against her sitting on the King County Council.

Reports also confirm that she is running her own campaign behind the scenes to get a seat on the Council.  Since she is so unqualified and lacking in support in the community, any negative comments about her are deemed out of order, in her opinion.  Her latest tack is to complain to people on organizations that belong to, to say that if I am in a leadership position in Democratic politics, or community politics, or advocacy groups, then I should not say anything negative about Kohl-Welles.

Kohl-Welles behavior is exactly what has so many people in Seattle frustrated and discouraged by our political leadership.  Instead of exhibiting leadership, integrity, and backbone, they spend their time shutting down and slandering anyone in the community who opposes them.  It is often disguised as the widely discredited ‘Seattle Nice,’  passive aggressive and dysfunctional personalities who are wholly incapable of having a policy discussion with anyone who doesn’t agree with them.   Instead of seeking to improve her record, reach out to her critics to learn from them, and take controversial and courageous positions, she seeks to shoot the messenger of any criticism at all.   It is the same technique used by Greg Nickels, Dow Constantine, Richard Conlin, and Jim Compton.  It’s despicable.