A network architecture based on market principles

PROVIDING basic Internet services is not difficult. All a provider needs is a link to another Internet service provider to become a member of the “network of networks”. However, making profit in this business has become very hard, due to the continually evolving array of Internet services that are demanded by users and offered by companies. New services like Internet Telephony or Media Streaming mark a shift away from traditional best-effort services (also known as “pure data transport”). Similar to this service evolution, structural changes have an impact on the provider market. A trend to increased connectivity among Internet service providers has been observed for several years and persists. The distributed structure of the network is constantly changing (due to market entries, exits, mergers and splits). In this distributed market all providers are competitors and collaborators at the same time. Competitors because they have the same potential customers (regional), and collaborators because they rely on their connectivity to provide service to destinations they cannot reach themselves. Even customers compete when they access the network and local demand exceeds supply. Pricing the Internet and its services is so hard because accurate information about processes in this huge, distributed market is not always available or often only as an approximation. In response to this difficult situation we present a network architecture that improves the flow of financial incentives between customers and Internet service providers. It is targeted at today’s and future Internet protocols promising to improve service quality. Its design starts at the backbone of the network and is fitted to the highly connected, and asymmetric structure of network topology and traffic. Providers interact with each other through Service Level Agreement (SLA) Traders that integrate service allocation, routing and pricing functions. Towards the less connected access networks, the flow of financial incentives must not be interrupted to keep this market working. Since SLAs are built on large aggregates of traffic flows, traders can operate them efficiently. In access networks, SLAs are interfaced to profiles and descriptions of micro flows that better fit the needs of single users.