Enabling Novel Interconnection Agreements with Path-Aware Networking Architectures

TL;DR

This paper explores how path-aware networks enable new interconnection agreements among autonomous systems, improving network performance and economic benefits by supporting source-selected paths without traditional stability constraints.

Contribution

It introduces novel interconnection agreements enabled by path-aware networks, along with methods for establishing Pareto-optimal, fair agreements and an automated bargaining mechanism.

Findings

Path-aware networks improve latency and bandwidth.

New interconnection agreements increase economic profits.

Automated negotiation mechanisms facilitate agreement setup.

Abstract

Path-aware networks (PANs) are emerging as an intriguing new paradigm with the potential to significantly improve the dependability and efficiency of networks. However, the benefits of PANs can only be realized if the adoption of such architectures is economically viable. This paper shows that PANs enable novel interconnection agreements among autonomous systems, which allow to considerably improve both economic profits and path diversity compared to today's Internet. Specifically, by supporting packet forwarding along a path selected by the packet source, PANs do not require the Gao-Rexford conditions to ensure stability. Hence, autonomous systems can establish novel agreements, creating new paths which demonstrably improve latency and bandwidth metrics in many cases. This paper also expounds two methods to set up agreements which are Pareto-optimal, fair, and thus attractive to both parties. We further present a bargaining mechanism that allows two parties to efficiently automate agreement negotiations.