Abstract
The Internet has evolved from an infrastructure supporting mainly e-mail and web applications, to a
generic platform for a broad range of services, including Internet telephony (VoIP), Internet television
(IPTV), Peer-to-Peer (P2P) file sharing, and many more. The proliferation of wireless and optical fiber
technology has lead to an increase both in terms of network coverage and capacity, which is likely going to
continue in the near future. As a consequence, the Internet is facing a tremendous growth in the number of
users and services, and the amount of traffic generated by them. However, the Internet architecture is still
based on its original design which is facing a number of shortcomings, including but not limited to lack of
scalability, mobility support, and security. In order to address these problems, possible solutions proposed
in the scope of global and EU initiatives on the “Future Internet” range from evolutionary to revolutionary
approaches. However, the future Internet will only be successful if economic aspects and requirements
of users, service providers, and network operators are taken into account. To this end, appropriate incentives
are needed for an economically efficient supply and use of network resources for different Internetbased
services. Furthermore, the relation between technology and these economic aspects — termed
techno-economics — are of critical importance for a successful new Internet.
This paper provides an overview on such different aspects, describes a basic model for the future Internet,
and discusses challenges of a scalable and economic management of the future Internet. In addition, it
presents and discusses selected areas of importance, including economic management of future Internet
traffic and services as well as traffic analysis in the future Internet.
Hausheer, D