I pretty much concur... with the caveat as you mention the slow but supposedly impending move to IP v 6... and with the idea that the functionality of TCP/IP actually being replaced.... by an equivalent or better protocol/protocol defining mechanism.
The logical layer protocol has migrated from NCP to IPv4 to IPv6. There are those who refer to the Internet as starting in 1969 as the ARPANet using NCP - I would agree. In 1980 the network has a Y2K style migration to IP. And now it has a snails pace migration to IPv6. These are software upgrades - but the network has remained the same network.
Another way we risk this shift away from the Internet is in the calls for building more "Intelligence" into the network (sometimes with 'security' being the driving wedge). Reading David Isenberg's work on the "Rise of the Stupid Network" we see the virtues of the TCP/IP based networks as one where the intelligence of the network is by design at the edges.
Young services not doing so well: "walled garden" instant messaging programs where a "smart" server is controlled by some corporation. AIM, MSN, Yahoo! IM, etc all fall into this camp.
The smart server may be in the middle of the IM service, but in terms of the layer 3/4 logical Internet network, it is still on an end. The IP network continues to be "stupid" routing those packets exactly the same as any other packets, with the minimal amount of processing possible in order to maximize transmission. The router - the network - is not optimized for any one application - is apathetic to what application you run - and passes all traffic equally. The evolutionary move away from the stupid network is not something at the application layer - but at the Internet layer - the rise of deep packet inspection, filtering, and routing. In the past, routers expended as little processing power as possible to enable those packets to fly. But if the router is so powerful that a processing overhead will not impair transmission, then the packets can be processed - and acted on accordingly. Now you have routers that are intelligently and can treat different packets differently. Routers can say application X gets priority - or user Y gets priority - or application Z will be blocked - or traffic to destination V will instead by routed to destination Q. This is also a dramatic change from the stupid network. Intelligence is back in the network and discrimination of traffic is possible. =~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~= Cybertelecom :: Federal Internet Law & Policy www.cybertelecom.org Read Garrison Keillor, Congress' shameful retreat from American values, Chicago Tribune Oct 4 http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-0610040035oct04,1,2100411.col...