Title
On the Economics of Network Interconnections and Net Neutrality
Abstract
The Internet of symmetric traffic flows between networks and a hierarchical topology, has long given way to one with a significantly asymmteric traffic flows and a flatter topology. The Internet topology of today may be characterised as having three key types of networks-content providers, user access providers, and transit providers. Further, in this Internet, best-effort routing of centrally stored content using distributed protocols has been seen to be inadequate to provide a suitably reliable transport service to provide the requisite quality of service to the end user. Two important developments to mitigate this gap in the capability of the Internet and the needs of modern content are the following. (1) Proliferation of content distribution networks (2) direct peering between content networks and ISPs. In this paper we analyze the economics of such interconnections. Using microeconomic models from industrial organization literature, we first develop the conditions for a content provider to connect directly to a service provider. Further, when such a direct link is indeed sought, we analyze the quality of the link vis-a-vis the default option of using a transit service. We then analyze the content provider market coverage by the content distribution networks. Finally, we discuss the implications of these results on the objectives sought by net neutrality regimes.
Year
DOI
Venue
2019
10.1109/COMSNETS.2019.8711013
2019 11th International Conference on Communication Systems & Networks (COMSNETS)
Keywords
Field
DocType
network interconnections,symmetric traffic,hierarchical topology,Internet topology,user access providers,transit providers,best-effort routing,centrally stored content,distributed protocols,suitably reliable transport service,content distribution networks direct peering,content networks,service provider,transit service,content provider market coverage,net neutrality regimes,asymmteric traffic,quality of service,microeconomic models,industrial organization literature
Computer science,Computer network,Net neutrality
Conference
ISSN
ISBN
Citations 
2155-2487
978-1-5386-7903-6
1
PageRank 
References 
Authors
0.38
11
4
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Sravan Patchala120.73
Seunghyun Lee210.38
Changhee Joo368547.85
D. Manjunath427423.30