NeTS: Small: Collaborative Research: Inter-provider Dynamics in Neutral and Non-neutral Networks

在过去五年中，涉及营利性互联网服务提供商和“内容”提供商的网络中立性辩论，以及与安全有关的问题，在西方媒体对互联网的报道以及北美和欧洲的政府监管听证会上占据了最突出的位置。这两个主要问题与公平对待申请有关（应用中立）和独立内容和服务提供商之间的边付款。该资助的四个研究重点是：发展有关各方的宏观经济和网络动态的无偏见，简约模型;分析这些模型，以评估不同定价机制、供应商联盟和服务差异化战略的相对效益;获取当前的真实世界数据和实际经验教训，为这些模型提供信息;并特别关注中性框架与非中性框架的比较。在初步的示例研究中，最终用户需求的被动模型被用于定义多个ISP和多个内容提供商之间的博弈。用户可以参与两种类型的应用：一种是延迟敏感的，另一种是吞吐量敏感的。与特定提供商合作的用户比例取决于提供商？的当前价格，受客户惯性模型时，竞争对手？价格接近。考虑在不同类型的供应商之间实行受管制的附带付款。一个令人惊讶的发现，在稳定的纳什均衡是，垄断供应商（例如一个单一的ISP）接收侧付款实际上有更少的收入比？中立？没有附带付款的情况（附带付款导致收款人提高最终用户价格，从而降低最终用户需求）。来自消耗最多带宽的应用类型的收入自然受到最大的影响。本研究的主要智力价值与制定参与互联网经济的不同实体之间宏观互动的跨学科要素的易处理但现实的数学模型的挑战有关。 在自然随时间变化的系统参数的存在下，跟踪确定的近最优策略。 虽然模型可能很简单，但它经常会产生意想不到的复杂行为（例如，具有不同稳定质量的多个纳什均衡）。重要的现实世界的数据和实际经验教训将在这项研究中确定通过研究的敏感性派生结果的不同模型参数在playing.One方面的更广泛的影响，这项研究涉及到巨大的金融风险参与的网络中立性的辩论，因此，这项研究的潜力，影响显着的互联网运营和架构的发展，即使在短期内。产业外联是这项研究的重要组成部分，不仅是为了跟上当前的发展，而且是为了获得第一手的相关数据，希望这些数据可以传播给更广泛的研究界。这项研究产生更广泛影响的另一个方面是，开发和传播适合于联网研究生课程的相关“经济学”教学模块，以及招聘和培训来自代表性不足的少数群体的学生学习计算机科学和电气与计算机工程。

Over the past five years, the network neutrality debate involving for-profit ISPs and "content" providers, together with security-related issues, has figured most prominently in the Western media's coverage of the Internet and in government regulatory hearings in both North America and Europe. The two principal issues have to do with equitable treatment of applications (application neutrality) and side payments between independent content and service providers.The four research thrusts of this grant are: the development of unbiased, parsimonious models of macro-economic and networking dynamics of all parties involved; analyzing these models with an aim to assess the relative benefit of different pricing regimes, provider alliances, and service-differentiation strategies; acquiring current, real-world data and practical lessons-learned to inform these models; and focusing in particular on comparing neutral to non-neutral frameworks.In a preliminary example study, a passive model of end-user demand was used to define a game between multiple ISPs and multiple content providers. The users could engage in two types of applications: one delay sensitive, the other throughput sensitive. The fraction of users engaged with a particular provider depended on the provider?s current prices, subject to a customer inertia model when competitors? prices were close. A regulated side-payment between providers of different types was considered. A surprising finding at stable Nash equilibrium was that monopolistic providers (say a single ISP) receiving side payments actually had less income than the ?neutral? scenario without side-payments (side payments result in increased end-user prices by the payee which lowers end-user demand). Revenues from the application types which consumed the most bandwidth were naturally affected the most.The primary intellectual merit of this research has to do with the challenge of formulating tractable though realistic mathematical models of the cross-disciplinary elements of the macroscopic interactions among different entities participating in the Internet economy. Identified near-optimal strategies are tracked in the presence of naturally time-varying system parameters. Though a model may be simple, it often yields unexpectedly complex behavior (e.g., multiple Nash equilibria with differing stability qualities). Important real-world data and practical lessons will be identified in this research through the study of sensitivity of derived results to the different model parameters in play.One aspect of the broader impact of this research pertains to the enormous financial stakes involved in the network neutrality debate, and therefore the potential of this research to influence significantly Internet operations and architectural development even in the near term. Industry outreach is a significant part of this research, not only to keep abreast of current developments, but also to obtain first-hand relevant data that hopefully can be disseminated to the broader research community. Another aspect of the broader impact of this research is the development and dissemination of related "economics" teaching modules suitable for networking graduate courses, and the recruitment and training of students from under-represented minority groups in Computer Science and Electrical and Computer Engineering.