The 36th IPP Symposium

Overlaying and Underlaying the Internet

Robert Blumofe, Akamai

The overwhelming success of the Internet can be attributed, at least in part, to a simple layer of network protocol, the Internet Protocol (IP), that sits roughly in the middle of the network stack and forms a covenant between the lower layers and the upper layers. Though some have argued that IP is out of date, it is the very stability of this convenant that has allowed for the proliferation of Internet underlays, those being access options that include home broadband and wireless, and Internet overlays, those being applications that include the myriad web-based applications. Those underlays and overlays extend the Internet to serve roles that likely were not envisioned at the time of writing the IP specification. In this talk, I will elaborate on this concept of the Internet as covenants, not only as technical covenants but also as business and social covenants, and I will go into some detail on the workings of the Akamai network as an example of an Internet overlay that takes advantage of these covenants and provides services, such as guaranteed performance and reliability, that are not present in the core Internet.