Introducing and applying a SESERV methodology for analyzing socioeconomic tussles to the ETICS FP7 project

posted 23 Oct 2011, 02:04 by Costas Kalogiros
SESERV prepared a whitepaper (which can be found here) for introducing and applying a SESERV methodology for analyzing socioeconomic tussles to a FP7 European research project. Tussle analysis is very much related to technologies, and is not just a statement about the economic processes, like competition between providers of the same functionality. In simple terms, economic competition is always in the background, but the tussle is the specific technology-enabled strategic behavior. More specifically the aim is to clarify how each step may be executed and what its value might be in comparison to other similar methodologies, such as value network analysis. 
We selected the ETICS project to apply this methodology, which enriches the current Internet model with inter-carrier assured-quality services, because it combines technological advances with socio-economic challenges. In future this methodology will be applied to other representative research projects as well, trying to cover several thematic areas of FP7 Challenge 1 (with main focus on Networks of the Future). We apply the proposed tussle analysis methodology to two types of functionality offered by the ETICS framework. The first one is related to establishment of QoS-aware, inter-domain paths and we find that allowing fine-grained control over major properties of interconnection agreement (such as set of IP destinations) can help adoption of the ETICS system and sustain a healthy ecosystem for all participants. The second functionality investigated is service delivery with assured quality between multiple ISPs and we find that even if ISPs are honest in primary paths they may overbook backup paths, thus without adequate monitoring it is not possible to correctly assign responsibility for breaking the e2e SLA in case of failure along the path (where the backup should be used).
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