Information and Knowledge Society

Economics of Internet interdomain interconnections

Doctoral Programme on the Information and Knowledge Society
20/07/2015

Author: Ignacio de Castro Arribas
Programme: Doctoral Programme on the Information and Knowledge Society
Language:  English
Supervisor: Dr Sergey Gorinsku 
Faculty / Institute: Internet Interdisciplinary Institute (IN3) & IMDEA Networks Institute

Key words: Networks, economics, Internet, transit, peering, interdomain
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Abstract:

The Internet is an evolving ecosystem where a multitude of interconnected networks, or Ases (Autonomous Systems), support global connectivity of end users. By providing economic incentives for routing traffic on behalf of other networks, interconnection agreements between ASes are a cornerstone of the Internet. However, rapid Internet adoption, unrelenting traffic growth, and increasing demands for quality and performance are challenging to cope with, provoke recurrent conflicts over the economic settlement of interconnections, and question the capacity of the Internet to provide critical services. This thesis studies the economic aspects of the interconnections between ASes, identifies challenges hampering the future of the Internet, and proposes solutions to resolve them. We begin by presenting the first analytical and empirical study on remote peering, an emerging type of interconnections that relaxes the geographical constraints of ASes and also facilitates interconnections at a lower cost. Then we introduce CIPT and T4P, two novel interconnection arrangements that reduce traffic delivery costs for the ASes. Because some of the limitations are inherent to the current Internet architecture we end this thesis presenting Route Bazaar, a new Internet architecture that, inspired by the use of the block chain mechanism and cryptographic tools in cryptocurrencies, provides a contractual framework for flexible interconnections with rich policies.