I have blogged about traffic shaping on the internet before, but now the topic is back in the forefront due to an upcoming probe into the issue of internet traffic management by the CRTC.I'll try to build an analogy to represent the current situation regarding the desire of Canada's ISPs to traffic shape the data that passes through their portion of the internet.
Imagine if after building a highway system, the government was surprised to discover that more vehicles than expected are using the highway system and that upon further investigation, it was noticed that motor homes were the cause of most traffic jams. As a solution, the government forces all motor homes to always drive at 60km/h and only on the right shoulder of the highway - from now on.
This is essentially what is happening in the Canadian telecoms industry. Certain types of traffic are clogging (so they say) the highways of the internet and instead of doing the logical thing - making the highways capable of handling the increased demand, instead they're employing traffic shaping, which analyzes the traffic and decides which traffic gets priority, putting the brakes on the 'targeted data'.
There are many organizations and people opposed to this, and no wonder. If this kind of internet interference is allowed, what's to stop content providers from greasing the palms of the ISPs with a little extra cash to buy high priority traffic lanes on the internet?
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