Open Network Interfaces for Carrier Networks

摘要

There is an active discussion about whether carriers should simply forward packets on behalf of end-to-end services, or whether they should leverage in-network devices-middleboxes-to improve the user experience. One thing is not under debate: middleboxes are pervasive in today's networks and they are unlikely to go anywhere soon. However, today's middlebox services are deployed in an ad-hoc manner, and they are owned, operated, and controlled by carriers with little or no input from the applications they interpose on. This paper argues that instead of such a closed approach to implementing in-network functionality, carriers should sell access to network functionality as a service with open interfaces, much like Amazon sells access to their EC2 infrastructure.