Internet Fragmentation, Political Structuring, and Organizational Concentration in Transnational Engineering Networks

Abstract

Is the internet at risk of fragmentation? Whereas the literature has examined this question with a focus on domestic policies, communication standards, and internet governance institutions, we analyze fragmentation and alternative outcomes in transnational engineering networks. These networks constitute the social foundations of the unified or ‘global’ internet. Our contributions include: (1) broadening the debate beyond fragmentation‐related network outcomes to include political structuring and organizational concentration; and (2) new evidence from an important engineering network around the Internet Engineering Task Force comprising thousands of participants and over four decades. Our analyses reveal fast and continuous network growth as well as clear signs of growing concentration of the network around a few major companies. A key implication is that, at the level of engineering networks, concerns about internet fragmentation might be unfounded and might distract from more salient developments such as organizational concentration.

Internets: The Changing Role of Internet Protocols in Evolving Broadband Technologies

“…These ARPANET-focused RFCs, however, shifted in the 1990s when computer and software corporations like IBM and Cisco were most prominent once the internet was released to the public. A new third shift in RFC contributions identified by Weyrauch and Winzen show non-American companies beginning to become prominent IETF responders and developers of the transport layer of the internet (Weyrauch & Winzen, 2021). Huawei is currently the most prominent since 2018, as described by Weyrauch and Winzen's data, aligning this thesis' own findings of how China is taking a more prominent role in international internet standardization via Huawei.…”

“…In Cooper's letter, she does address the resiliency of TCP/IP, however, resiliency and sustainability are two separate concepts and should not be confused as synonyms. 47 Again, the argument of TCP/IP as not being a future-proof technology is not new with this thesis or the previously mentioned emerging scholars (B. S. Paris, 2021;Weyrauch & Winzen, 2021). This conversation has been in place with scholars like Alexander Galloway (2004) for just under two decades.…”

“…Chinese participation in internet standards setting has been growing in recent years. The below graph identifies Weyrauch and Winzen's (2021) recent findings of Return for Comments (RFC) participation at the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), which is the internet's primary standards organization, with Huawei becoming a dominant player in internet technical components and standardization. Historically internet pioneering institutions funded through the US Department of Defense's (DoD) Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET), also known as the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), were these key RFC players.…”

Coordinating the Internet : Thought styles, technology and coordination

“…As illustrated by Weyrauch and Winzen (2020) the portion of RFCs authored by firms has increased steadily the last decade, and academia is producing significantly fewer. Table 7.1 illustrates the organizations responsible for the most RFCs.…”

“…Currently most Internet Standards are set and suggested by for-profits (see Weyrauch and Winzen, 2020), so it is the correct world order (in the market thought style), even if sometimes the wrong firms set the standards. Smaller actors might argue that there is a problem with the world order, which is common in market settings where larger actors set the rules of engagement.…”