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Connectivity in the Commercial Internet
Author(s) -
Crémer Jacques,
Rey Patrick,
Tirole Jean
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
the journal of industrial economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.93
H-Index - 77
eISSN - 1467-6451
pISSN - 0022-1821
DOI - 10.1111/1467-6451.00132
Subject(s) - multihoming , interconnection , backbone network , the internet , peering , quality (philosophy) , computer science , internet backbone , business , computer network , extension (predicate logic) , degradation (telecommunications) , telecommunications , internet access , world wide web , internet protocol , physics , quantum mechanics , programming language
We study the ‘backbone market’ in the Internet. After discussing the structure of the Internet, we use an extension of the Katz‐Shapiro network model to analyze the strategies that would be used by dominant backbone. We show that a larger backbone prefers a lower quality interconnection than the smaller one. We then analyze a ‘targeted degradation’ strategy where the larger backbone lowers the quality of interconnection to its smaller rivals in turn. Finally, we show that the qualitative results are robust to the possibility of ‘multihoming’ by clients.