Does the appearance of XML-enabled, application-aware, Intelligent Networking devices mark the beginning of the end of the “open internet” – that is, where all data crosses the network infrastructure unfettered, unfiltered, and, most importantly, where every message enjoys the same service level as any other message? Ironically, the very power unleased by exchanging XML on the internet threatens, in the eyes of some, the goals of openness and innovation that led to its being put there in the first place. In this presentation we will look at both sides of this debate.

Internet traffic today is managed at the “packet-level” and, until recently, all network devices operated without awareness of the type of traffic or application data contained in the packet. The application-aware network has the ability to peer into the packet and to apply processing rules based on understanding its data format and content. The application-aware network has many potential benefits including intelligent management of traffic to ensure optimal utilization of computing resources and service levels, enforcement of content policies, protection against application-level attacks, extraction of business intelligence at enterprise gateway, data format translation, and message level security. Standard XML message formats, and Web Services/SOAP enable application-aware networking to accomplish all this, providing both a format that can be manipulated on devices built to handle XML efficiently and known vocabularies against which processing rules can be written.

Now for the dark side. Carriers (owners of the big pipes) hate the current “dumb network” and want to be able to discriminate between differents kinds of traffic. With VoIP usage exploding telcos would love to end Skype’s “free ride” on the network. Distinguishing traffic is key to providing service levels; for the enterprise it means that your “platinum” passengers get special high-speed service not only in airport queues but also when they come through the Internet. Application-aware networking can give the carrier the ability to deliver the best throughput to the highest bidder; for example, they could give Google search users faster response times than Yahoo search users. More and more applications are web-centric (and XML-based); the same principle could certainly be applied to favor, for example, Microsoft applications. Once the high-speed pipes belong to the titans able to pay for monopolistic control of the infrastructure, wither Web 2.0 and innovation? Shut down with the error message “Application Not Recognized”?

Won’t government, with its duty to protect open commerce and communication, legislate such a universe out of existence? Maybe not. The relative liberty – chaos – of the Internet had a threatening aspect to it even before the start of the global war on terrorism; XML application-aware networking have some very attractive properities with respect to the ability to impose entry barriers to irresponsible use of the internet, to monitor use and content of messages, and to provide a more cost-effective mechanism for ensuring regulatory compliance. In some sense, application-aware networking is a logical outgrowth of some government programs to encourage the development of a commercial infrastructure over the Internet.