As it expands, the Internet faces many challenges, including security, management and control, and change in the Internet is of increasing relevance. This project will map out a radical departure from present-day Internet architecture, based upon full switching and switch-bank-style routing, such as has been used in traditional telephony. This approach could change the Internet engineering space, and provide solutions to challenges, but it has long been understood to be infeasible in the competitive market of service providers. In parallel with development of the technology solution, the project will explore the adoption and impact issues, using business and socioeconomic techniques. The PIs come from computer networking and business disciplines. The project will initially explore how the switched internet architecture supports interfacing with diverse wireless networks and what economics and incentives could cause such an architecture to be adopted.
Among the broader impacts of the project will be the project's interdisciplinary findings, because of the societal and economic impact of Internet architecture. Other broader impacts include enriching undergraduate and graduate research experience by offering subtopics as projects; encouraging women in computing through female research assistantships; curriculum enhancement through incorporating subtopics into our curricula; and outreach with these multidisciplinary topics in Project Lead the Way and Kids on Campus, at RIT.
