Challenge: Network-aware human traffic adaptation

Application layer centralized business players, such as search engines, have revolutionized the Internet, by smartly mediating between the users' generic interests and the specific resources returned. Meanwhile, networks consistently neglect the human nature of demand, and persist in handling a-priori offered load expressed in terms of requests for precisely identified network resources. A twofold paradox emerges: users remain unaware of cost/performance convenient, ”network-nearby”, resource alternatives well fitting their needs; networks, oblivious to such fitting, persist in serving ”network-far-away” resources. A foundational rethinking of human generated workload as something which may adapt to, and be shepherded by the network operation, could bring about significant network performance and service quality benefits, as well as new business opportunities. Our thesis is that the network operation should proactively assist the human user in her resource addressing decisions, by providing meant-for-human feedbacks on network-convenient resource alternatives. We could be at the dawn of a new intriguing interdisciplinary area, where the intrinsic ability of individuals to adapt their decision making and online behavior merges with the network operation itself, and becomes crucial in resource-constrained mobile networks.