Best-Effort Networking Systems

The existing communication network system, which is set up following the layered architecture, is vulnerable to infrastructure failures likely caused by nature disasters, terrorist attacks and wars. This is due to the fact that its normal operation relies on well-protected communication infrastructures and environments. They are usually provided by the chartered organizations such as Internet service providers or government agencies and called exclusive communication resource (ECR) here. Once some infrastructures are destroyed or fail in function, the Internet services, which are indispensable part of our daily life and social activities, will be disrupted, and usually it takes time to restore them. On the other hand, some ever-increasing communication resources provided by non-chartered organizations such as those from users themselves, which are called non-ECR here, have not been well exploited because the existing network system cannot support their use. Such kind of resources usually exhibit high dynamics and heterogeneity. In order to construct more robust network system in the future, this paper proposes a new network approach, Best-Effort Networking System (BENS), and discusses the related research issues.