CAREER: An Economically Sustainable Internet: From Technology and Architecture to Contracting Models

最近关于“网络中立”的头条新闻表明，未来应该管理互联网的监管基础设施(如果有的话)存在严重的不确定性。也许这场政策辩论最令人惊讶的是，它并没有受到技术方面的考虑：即互联网的技术和架构。这一职业项目通过确保稳健的架构设计和经济可持续性被视为成功通信基础设施的补充功能，从而缩小了这一差距。我们研究技术和架构对互联网合同模式的影响，以确定哪些模式将导致经济上可持续的网络。两个高层次的问题推动了大部分研究议程：(1)什么合同模式是“激励兼容的”，即使个人激励与全球网络的可持续性保持一致？(2)什么合同模式确保网络最终“动态”地收敛到一个可持续的运营点？我们以这些问题为背景，首先对现行互联网签约制度的弊端进行了评价。然后，我们评估一系列技术或架构变化如何实现更复杂的合同模型，最终提出一种“合同协议”，使价值能够在互联网节点之间的多个时间尺度上传输。一个基础广泛的教育和公共推广计划与研究工作相辅相成。布罗德影响：这个项目教育新一代领导人和广大公众，让他们了解技术和架构在互联网经济结构中扮演的角色。该项目的成功完成确保了这种耦合成为关于互联网未来的国家政策辩论的中心主题。

Recent headlines about ``network neutrality'' speak to the deep uncertainty about the future regulatory infrastructure (if any) that should govern the Internet. Perhaps most surprising about this policy debate is that it has not been informed by technical considerations: i.e., the technology and architecture of the Internet. This CAREER project closes this gap, by ensuring that robust architectural design and economic sustainability are viewed as complementary features of a successful communications infrastructure. We study the influence of technology and architecture on contracting models for the Internet, to determine those which will lead to an economically sustainable network. Two high-level questions drive the majority of the research agenda: (1) What contracting models are "incentive compatible", i.e., align individual incentives with global network sustainability? (2) What contracting models ensure the network eventually converges "dynamically" to a sustainable operating point? We use these questions as the backdrop to first evaluate the shortcomings of the current Internet contracting system. We then evaluate how a sequence of technological or architectural changes enable more sophisticated contracting models, ultimately suggesting a "contracting protocol" that enables value transmission over multiple timescales between nodes of the Internet. A broad-based education and public outreach program complements the research endeavors.Broader Impacts:This project educates a new generation of leaders and the public at large about the role that technology and architecture play in the economic structure of the Internet. Successful completion of the project ensures that this coupling is a central theme in the national policy debate about the future of the Internet.