Re: MITM attacks or the Half/Circuit model - was Netflix Is Eating

[bmanning () vacation karoshi com]

On Wed, May 18, 2011 at 12:32:49PM +0200, Phil Regnauld wrote:
> Leigh Porter (leigh.porter) writes:
> > Well it depends if Netflix pay for the bandwidth they use
>
>       You mean, customers have to pay for the bandwidth they use.
>       I'm sure NetFlix is paying *their* network and other transit providers
>       for outgoing bandwidth they consume.
>       Phil


        note the classic Man-In-The-Middle attack here.  Or in other words, 
        the ITU half/circuit billing model for traditional telecomunications
        companies.   

        The telecom model is :  "I'll provide you with a tranist path to me,
        and trust me to hand your communications to the other party you wish
        to communicate with."  So GTE / MaBell gets to bill -both- parties
        at their usual usarious rates.  The problem here is that the incumbent
        operators have and are fighting tooth/nail to ensure their near monopoly
        on access.  
        So...
        We either need to re-regulate them to assure equal access at equitable rates
        -or- we need to de-regulate the access market and open up last mile ROW to
        all comers.  What we have done is de-regulate the access and retain the monopoly
        status on last mile ROW.  the incumbents have captive markets and can charge
        whatever the market will bear.  Great work if you can get it.

        If we truely beleived in end-2-end, we might see more systems
        using or trying to find other access paths ...   YMMV of course.

/bill