Editing Net neutrality (section)

===End-to-end principle===
The [[end-to-end principle]] of [[network design]] was first laid out in the 1981 paper ''End-to-end arguments in system design'' by [[Jerome H. Saltzer]], [[David P. Reed]], and [[David D. Clark]].<ref name="SRC1981">Saltzer, J. H., D. P. Reed, and D. D. Clark (1981) "End-to-End Arguments in System Design". In: Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems. Paris, France. 8–10 April 1981. IEEE Computer Society, pp. 509–512.</ref> The principle states that, whenever possible, [[communications protocol]] operations should be defined to occur at the end-points of a communications system, or as close as possible to the resources being controlled. According to the end-to-end principle, protocol features are only justified in the lower layers of a system if they are a performance optimization; hence, [[Transmission Control Protocol|TCP]] retransmission for reliability is still justified, but efforts to improve TCP reliability should stop after peak performance has been reached.

They argued that, in addition to any processing in the intermediate systems, reliable systems tend to require processing in the end-points to operate correctly. They pointed out that most features in the lowest level of a communications system impose costs for all higher-layer clients, even if those clients do not need the features, and are redundant if the clients have to re-implement the features on an end-to-end basis. This leads to the model of a minimal [[dumb network]] with smart terminals, a completely different model from the previous paradigm of the smart network with [[dumb terminal]]s. Because the end-to-end principle is one of the central design principles of the Internet, and because the practical means for implementing data discrimination violate the end-to-end principle, the principle often enters discussions about net neutrality. The end-to-end principle is closely related and sometimes seen as a direct precursor to the principle of net neutrality.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/04/the-best-writing-on-net-neutrality/361237/ |title=Net Neutrality: A Guide to (and History of) a Contested Idea |work=[[The Atlantic]] |author1=Alexis C. Madrigal |author2=Adrienne LaFrance |name-list-style=amp |date=25 April 2014 |access-date=5 June 2014 |quote=This idea of net neutrality...[Lawrence Lessig] used to call the principle e2e, for end to end |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140531073108/http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/04/the-best-writing-on-net-neutrality/361237/ |archive-date=31 May 2014}}</ref>