[ NNSquad ] Google, caching, and "network neutrality"

[Brett Glass <nnsquad@brettglass.com>]

Richard Whitt writes:

> By bringing YouTube videos and other content physically closer to 
> end users, site operators can improve page load times for videos 
> and Web pages. In addition, these solutions help broadband 
> providers by minimizing the need to send traffic outside of their 
> networks and reducing congestion on the Internet's backbones. In 
> fact, caching represents one type of innovative network practice 
> encouraged by the open Internet.

Perhaps because Mr. Whitt is a corporate executive rather than an 
engineer, he is not aware that YouTube videos are in fact not 
cacheable by design. As mentioned at

http://wiki.squid-cache.org/ConfigExamples/DynamicContent/YouTube

many have tried to reconfigure standard caching programs, such as 
Squid, to cache YouTube content, but have been thwarted by 
YouTube's "load balancing" system, which may supply any of dozens 
of different URLs for the same video. As a result, no ISP (to my 
knowledge) has been able to achieve reliable caching of YouTube. In 
fact, the approach mentioned at the link above harms the ISP's 
network, because it creates multiple copies of the same video on 
the ISP's cache machine -- consuming large amounts of disk space 
and pushing aside other content -- while failing to provide any 
assurance that those copies will be used when they are needed.

Richard also writes:

> Google has offered to "colocate" caching servers within broadband 
> providers' own facilities; this reduces the provider's bandwidth 
> costs since the same video wouldn't have to be transmitted 
> multiple times. We've always said that broadband providers can 
> engage in activities like colocation and caching, so long as they 
> do so on a non-discriminatory basis.

As an ISP, I've stated publicly several times that I'd love to host 
a co-located Google server. However, to my knowledge, YouTube has 
never approached me or any other small or rural ISP (the ones that 
need it the most) with an offer to install such a server. If such 
servers aren't available to all ISPs on equal terms -- and in 
particular if they are placed at large ISPs and not small ones -- 
then they will give large ISPs (such as cable and telephone 
companies) a great advantage over smaller ones, driving the nation 
toward duopoly. If this is not what Google desires, how quickly can 
we obtain such a cache? Call us, Google; we're waiting.

--Brett Glass, LARIAT