Thinking about Openness in the Telecommunications Policy Context

In recent years, issues associated with “openness” have taken on increased importance in the development of telecommunications policy. For example, the concept of Open Network Architecture was hotly debated in the context of the Federal Communications Commission’s Computer Inquiry III proceeding. The phenomenal success of the Internet is often attributed to its reliance upon open, non-proprietary standards. Recently, open access has been a contentious topic in terms of cable television company provision of Internet access services. Despite its importance, the term “open” is often not clearly defined, is often taken to mean different things in different contexts and has vastly different implications depending upon what level of the protocol stack is being considered. It is not our purpose in this paper to advocate any particular degree of openness or to critique past commercial and regulatory decisions dealing with the topic. Rather, in this paper, we seek to explain and to offer a clearer, more unified and consistent definition of what constitutes openness. We do so in the context of the different levels of the protocol stacks that comprise modern data communications networks. We focus particular attention on the Internet suite of protocols (e.g., TCP/IP) and its relationship to the other layers. Where applicable, we identify and describe recent changes in network architectures that impact on the openness in different layers. We also discuss the changing commercial, technological and regulatory developments that might motivate these changes.