A Discussion of Socio-Economic Management and Incentives for the Future Internet

This paper outlines the outcome of a socioeconomics (SE) and incentives work group during the "Management of the Future Internet" seminar, held in Dagstuhl, Germany. This covers an indication of key questions and issues, which are classified as important for next steps in network management. Furthermore, the process of dealing with aspects of "Socio-economic Management" is discussed, which determines a hybrid and innovative approach besides traditional network management approaches. This determines a network management in which control is delegated via socio-economic means and to a certain extent to the user and provider with the goal to maximize the overall social welfare and the networks technical efficiency at the same time. This is refined by a set of SE-driven management mechanisms, the discussion of abstract user/network interfaces (stakeholder relations), and an example case for managing overlay traffic in such a network management system. Finally, based on a set of ideal SE requirements derived from the analysis of existing approaches, a set of preliminary conclusions is drawn.