From: "Smith, Kevin, (R&D) Vodafone Group" <Kevin.Smith@vodafone.com>
To: "saag@ietf.org" <saag@ietf.org>
Thread-Topic: Ubiquitous encryption draft feedback - mobile case
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Date: Tue, 31 Mar 2015 09:22:09 +0000
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Subject: [saag] Ubiquitous encryption draft feedback - mobile case
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Hi Kathleen & Al,

Thanks for publishing this draft, which makes a lot of sense. I support app=
roaches that allow network management to persist without breaching encrypti=
on or introducing any security/privacy weakness, and this paper provides a =
sound reference for such work.

I'd like to offer an additional (sub) section  on the particular case of tr=
affic management for mobile networks, along the lines of:

"Bandwidth in cellular radio networks tends to be more volatile than in fix=
ed networks. This is a result of variance in radio signal strength as a use=
r moves around a cell, the rapid ingress and egress of connections as users=
 handoff between adjacent cells, and sudden congestion at certain cells at =
certain times. Mobile networks account for this by queuing traffic accordin=
g to its required bandwidth and acceptable latency, and hence spread the av=
ailable bandwidth sensibly across users: for example, a user is unlikely to=
 notice a 20ms delay when receiving a Web page, email or instant message re=
sponse, but will likely notice video buffering or VoIP call jitter. The net=
work manages the queue so that each user has an acceptable experience as co=
nditions vary. Application and transport layer encryption makes the traffic=
 type detection less accurate, impacting queue management."

Also section 4.1 highlights many similarities between Enterprise and a gove=
rnment-regulated mobile network.

A couple of minor typos in the Introduction:

"These efforts are necessary to improve end users expectation of privacy,"
s/improve end users expectation/improve an end user's expectation

"Many attackers and those that pose a greater threat are already using stro=
ng encryption and tools like TOR [TOR] to prevent active attacks from on th=
eir data streams."
s/from/

All best,
Kevin

Kevin Smith, Vodafone R&D