This paper presents the design of a new Internet routing architecture (NIRA). In today’s Internet, users can pick their own ISPs, but once the packets have entered the network, the users have no control over the overall routes their packets take. NIRA aims at providing end users the ability to choose the sequence of Internet service providers a packet traverses. User choice fosters competition, which imposes an economic discipline on the market, and fosters innovation and the introduction of new services. This paper explores various technical problems that would have to be solved to give users the ability to choose: how a user discovers routes and whether the dynamic conditions of the routes satisfy his requirements, how to efficiently represent routes, and how to properly compensate providers if a user chooses to use them. In particular, NIRA utilizes a hierarchical provider-rooted addressing scheme so that a common type of domainlevel route can be efficiently represented by a pair of addresses. In NIRA, each user keeps track of the topology information on domains that provide transit service for him. A source retrieves the topology information of the destination on demand and combines this information with his own to discover end-to-end routes. This route discovery process ensures that each user does not need to know the complete topology of the Internet.

Bandwidth brokers as proposed in the diffserv framework build on the process of setting up Service Level Agreements (SLA). This is a very static procedure, usually performed manually and based only on a simple description of the SLA. However, diffserv is suited to handle a more dynamic environment and to provide more than connectivity with its service classes. Our proposal enhances bandwidth brokers by including more significant information in SLAs such as the flow's destination network and pricing. In addition, we present a new per-hop behavior that supports flexible allocation of code points which is important to our approach. The system is targeted at large ISPs with good inter-connectivity. We implemented it on top of a flow-based simulation engine. The evaluation is based on parts of the current AS topology and characteristics of aggregated traffic. The results show an improvement of network utilization by up to 40% over a traditional, shortest-path routed inter-domain network for...

Interconnection of IP QoS capabilities between networks releases considerable value. In this paper we show where this value will be realised. We give technical and economic arguments for why QoS will be provided in core and backbone networks as a bulk QoS facility incapable of distinguishing or charging differentially between sessions. While between edge networks a vibrant mix of retail QoS solutions will be possible, including Internet-wide per-flow guarantees. We outline cutting edge research on how to coordinate QoS between networks, using a session-based overlay between the edges that will extract most surplus value, underpinned by a bulk QoS layer coordinating the whole. We survey today’s interconnect tariffs and the current disconnected state of IP QoS. Then we describe a commercial ‘model of models ’ that allows incremental evolution towards an interconnected future. The paper covers intertwined engineering and economic/commercial issues in some depth, but considerable effort has been made to allow both communities to understand the whole paper. 1

Properly characterising paths is an important foundation for resource sharing and routing in packet networks. We realign metrics so that fields in packet headers characterise the path downstream of any point, rather than upstream. Then closed loop control is possible for either end-points or network nodes. We show how incentives can be arranged to ensure that honest reporting and responsible behaviour will be the dominant strategies of selfish parties, even for short flows. This opens the way for solutions to a number of problems we encounter in data networking, such as congestion control, routing and denial of service. 1

As soon as a network offers different service levels, pricing is needed to give incentives for not always using the highest quality of service (QoS). An open issue is how to derive a price for a certain service based on the transfer costs for data within this service. This paper shows that there is a need for a fi'amework for end-to-end pricing between providers and for inter-domain interchange of price information. The presented fi'amework leaves the fi'eedom of choosing a certain pricing model within domains in order to foster competition among different providers. It uses a hierarchical, domain centered approach which can be easily deployed within Differentiated Services networks because it may use already available components for pricing purposes.

This paper argues that all network providers in a connectionless multi-service network should offer each class of their service to each neighbour for each direction at a single price. This is called `splitedge pricing'. If sets of customers wish to reapportion their networking charges between themselves, this should be tackled end-to-end. Edge reapportionment should not be muddled with networking charges, as is the case in the telephony market. Avoiding the telephony approach is shown to o#er full reapportionment flexibility, but avoids the otherwise inevitable network complexity, particularly for multicast. `Split-edge pricing' is recursive, applying as much to relationships between providers as to edge-customers. Various scenarios are discussed, showing the advantage of the approach. These include phone to Internet gateways and even inter-domain multicast conferences with heterogeneous QoS. The business model analysis suggests a new, purely financial role of end-to-end intermediary in the Internet industry.

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