Slicing the Network: Maintaining Neutrality, Protecting Privacy, and Promoting Competition

• Main Authors: Doty, Nick, Knodel, Mallory
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 10-08-2023
• Subjects: Computer Science - Computers and Society; Computer Science - Networking and Internet Architecture
• DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2308.05829

The principles of net neutrality have been essential for maintaining the
diversity of services built on top of the internet and for maintaining some
competition between small and large providers of those online services. That
diversity and competition, in turn, provide users with a broader array of
choices for seeking online content and disseminating their own speech.
Furthermore, in order for the internet to be used to its full potential and to
protect the human rights of internet users, we need privacy from surveillance
and unwarranted data collection by governments, network providers, and edge
providers.
The transition to 5G mobile networks enables network operators to engage in a
technique called network slicing. The portion of a network that is sliced can
be used to provide a suite of different service offerings, each tailored to
specific purposes, instead of a single, general-purpose subscription for mobile
voice and data. This requires a careful approach. Our report describes the
technologies used for network slicing and outlines recommendations -- for both
operators and regulators -- to enable network slicing while maintaining network
neutrality, protecting privacy, and promoting competition.