Peeling the “ Layered Regulation ” Onion Glenn

Many complex, high-tech products and services can be usefully viewed as a series of “layers.” Like an onion, all the layers work together to produce the end result, each layer in physical or logical contact with its two neighbors. Engineers have proposed layered models for the architecture of telecommunications networks, the Internet, and computer systems. Recently, policy analysts and legal scholars have embraced this same engineering architecture as a template for reform of telecommunications regulation.