"potential new and different architectural approach" to solve the Comcast - L3 dispute

[bensons at queuefull.net (Benson Schliesser)]

On Dec 17, 2010, at 9:57 AM, Lor?nd Jakab wrote:

> Since it is Friday, maybe some of peering experts have some time to
> speculate what this new approach proposed by Comcast might be, as they
> assert it would represent "a significant shift of Internet infrastructure."
> 
> http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=202121
> http://blog.comcast.com/2010/12/comcast-continues-discussions-with-level-3----offers-to-trial-new-solutions.html

I have no direct knowledge of the situation, but my guess:  I suspect the proposal was along the lines of longest-path / best-exit routing by Level(3).  In other words, if L(3) carries the traffic (most of the way) to the customer, then Comcast has no complaint--the costs can be more fairly distributed.  The "modest investment" is probably in tools to evaluate traffic and routing metrics, to make this work.  This isn't really *new* to the peering community, but it isn't normal either.

If anybody knows for sure, I'd be interested to hear.

Cheers,
-Benson