BITAG Will Look at Net Differentiation, Prioritization

The Broadband Internet Technical Advisory Group (BITAG), the independent multistakeholder group addressing management practices issues, says its next technical review will be of prioritization and differentiated treatment of Internet traffic, two hot topics in the network neutrality debate.

Dish sought the review, with a report expected to be released by August, says BITAG.

"Differentiation of Internet network traffic on both wireline and wireless networks is a topic of continued interest among policymakers and the public alike," BITAG said in an annoucement of the review. "Significantly, the public discourse reflects a lack of clarity as to how traffic differentiation can be accomplished from both a technical perspective and as part of network management practices."

Douglas Sicker, executive director and chair of the Technical Working Group, who will head up the review.

The report will describe techniques to differentiate web traffic, the impact on applications, the difference between prioritizing and differentiation and best practices.

Other BITAG reports have dealt with interconnection, VoIP, peering, network management and congestion, blocking, denial of service attack mitigation and more.

Copies of those reports, and the latest one when available, are at bitag.org.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.