The goal of this short document is to explain why recent developments in the Internet's infrastructure are problematic. As context, we note that the Internet was originally designed to provide a simple universal service - global end-to-end packet delivery - on which a wide variety of end-user applications could be built. The early Internet supported this packet-delivery service via an interconnected collection of commercial Internet Service Providers (ISPs) that we will refer to collectively as the "public Internet." The Internet has fulfilled its packet-delivery mission far beyond all expectations and is now the dominant global communications infrastructure. By providing a level playing field on which new applications could be deployed, the Internet has enabled a degree of innovation that no one could have foreseen. To improve performance for some common applications, "enhancements" such as caching (as in content-delivery networks) have been gradually added to the Internet. The resulting performance improvements are so significant that such enhancements are now effectively necessary to meet current content delivery demands. Despite these tangible benefits, this document argues that the way these enhancements are currently deployed seriously undermines the sustainability of the public Internet and could lead to an Internet infrastructure that reaches fewer people and is largely concentrated among only a few large-scale providers. We wrote this document because we fear that these developments are now decidedly tipping the Internet's playing field towards those who can deploy these enhancements at massive scale, which in turn will limit the degree to which the future Internet can support unfettered innovation. This document begins by explaining our concerns but goes on to articulate how this unfortunate fate can be avoided. To provide more depth for those who seek it, we provide a separate addendum with further detail.

这份简短文档的目的是解释为什么互联网基础设施的最新发展存在问题。作为上下文，我们注意到互联网最初设计是为了提供简单的通用服务 - 全球端到端数据包传送 - 可以在该服务上构建各种最终用户应用程序。早期的互联网通过互连的商业互联网服务提供商 (ISP) 集合（我们统称为“公共互联网”）来支持这种数据包传送服务。互联网远远超出了所有人的预期，完成了其数据包传送使命，现已成为全球占主导地位的通信基础设施。通过提供一个可以部署新应用程序的公平竞争环境，互联网实现了人们无法预见的一定程度的创新。为了提高某些常见应用程序的性能，诸如缓存（如在内容交付网络中）之类的“增强功能”已逐渐添加到 Internet 中。由此产生的性能改进非常显着，以至于现在实际上需要进行此类增强才能满足当前的内容交付需求。尽管有这些切实的好处，但本文件认为，目前部署这些增强功能的方式严重破坏了公共互联网的可持续性，并可能导致互联网基础设施覆盖的人数更少，并且主要集中在少数大型提供商手中。我们编写这份文档是因为我们担心这些发展现在肯定会使互联网的竞争环境向那些能够大规模部署这些增强功能的人倾斜，这反过来又会限制未来互联网支持不受约束的创新的程度。本文件首先解释了我们的担忧，然后阐明了如何避免这种不幸的命运。为了给那些寻求它的人提供更多的深度，我们提供了一个单独的附录，其中包含更多细节。