Journal on Telecommunications and High Technology Law
University of Colorado School of Law
Innovations In The Internet’s Architecture That Challenge The Status Quo
Christopher S. Yoo
2010

Yoo’s latest article discusses how the Internet has changed and developed in ways that are currently being ignored by policymakers and proponents of network neutrality. He believes these changes have occurred in order for Internet service providers to “reduce cost, manage congestion and maintain quality of service.” He breaks the changes down into three parts:

1. Current changes due to the early Internet’s design and the business relationships inherent in the system;
2. Technological advancements in the modern Internet;
   
3. And new business models in connectivity between networks.

In the course of the paper, Yoo describes early development of the Internet backbone:

He continues with descriptions of early network architecture:

Finally, he comes full circle to new models in network peering:

Yoo concludes with the point that the development of networks is unique to individual business relationships, all with distinct terms and in many cases unique systems. He says that people too often fall victim to thinking the Internet is one system — a singular “monolith,” as he describes it — that can easily be manipulated with blanket policy when the system is far more complex.

The full paper is here.