Collaborative Research: FIND - On the Economic Viability of Network Architectures

互联网取得了巨大的成功，但它的问题和弱点已经变得明显，这促使人们寻找新的技术和网络体系结构。尽管技术创新仍将是互联网发展的基础，但这一关键基础设施对整个社会的重要性意味着，经济方面将是决定采用什么创新的关键因素。因此，该项目试图从定性和定量两个方面调查经济因素如何影响新的网络体系结构和技术的最终成功。感兴趣的方面包括量化虚拟化在实现不同级别的网络集成方面的好处；评估占主导地位的现有网络(今天的互联网)对新兴新体系结构的影响；以及设计模型来量化体系结构灵活性和开放性在存在市场不确定性的情况下促进技术采用和服务创造的价值。拟议研究的智力价值在于开发一个经济框架，用于推理网络技术、体系结构替代方案和权衡。其目标是通过考虑新网络架构的技术维度和将决定其成败的经济机制来为新网络架构的设计提供信息。该项目的更广泛影响将是帮助选择可能在市场上取得成功的网络解决方案。该计划还将培养一个涉及经济、商业和工程观点的多学科课程，这将使工程学学生更好地为在一个了解经济力量至关重要的世界取得成功做好准备，并促进工程学和商科学生之间的互动和合作。

The Internet is a phenomenal success, but problems and weaknesses init have become apparent, and this has spurred a search for newtechnologies and network architectures. Although technical innovationwill remain fundamental to the Internet's evolution, the importance ofthis key infrastructure for society as a whole means that economicaspects will be critical in determining what innovations are adopted.This project, therefore, seeks to investigate -- both qualitativelyand quantitatively -- how economic factors mediate the eventualsuccess of new network architectures and technologies. Aspects ofinterest include quantifying the benefits of virtualization inenabling different levels of network integration; evaluating theeffect of a dominant incumbent (today's Internet) on emerging newarchitectures; and devising models for quantifying the value ofarchitectural flexibility and openness in facilitating technologyadoption and service creation in the presence of market uncertainties.The intellectual merit of the proposed research is in developing aneconomic framework for reasoning about network technologies,architecture alternatives and trade-offs. The goal is to inform thedesign of new network architectures by accounting for both theirtechnical dimensions, and the economic mechanisms that will mediatetheir success or failure. The broader impact of the project will bein helping select network solutions that are likely to succeed in themarket place. The project will also foster a multi-disciplinarycurriculum involving economics, business and engineering perspectives.This will both better prepare engineering students to succeed in aworld where understanding of economical forces is of paramountimportance, and promote interactions and collaboration amongengineering and business students.