Eco-System Design Based on Internet Architecture Framework
Hiroshi Esaki, Ph.D
Graduate School of Information Science and Technology,
The University of Tokyo, Japan
E-mail : hiroshi@wide.ad.jp
Abstract
Future Internet will contribute to the improvement ofefficiency regarding all the activities developed anddeployed on the Earth. The internet system discussed in
the paper is not only meant the global computer network
using the IP (Internet Protocol), but is rather logicalarchitecture of the system applied in the Internetarchitecture. As discussed in Green ICT business, weneed the ubiquitous and global scaled sensor andactuator networks in order to develop and to deploy theenergy aware system. In this paper, the author discusses
why the “Internet” is very efficient platform, leading to
Eco-System. Many networks to contribute to energy
saving and to environment preservation as a controlplane, will adapt the IP technology, so as to deliver the
Eco-City or Eco-Town. The design principle is (1)Avoiding the fragmentation of IP systems and networks,(2) Encourage the collaboration among sub-systems, thatuse IP or may not use IP, (3) Explore the Eco-system, thatdelivers the cheaper system development and deployment,
while preserving the technical and business innovations.
Key words: Internet, Eco-System, Green IT,
network.

sensor

1. Introduction
Future Internet will have to contribute the improvementof efficiency regarding all the activity developed anddeployed on the Earth, i.e., saying smarter city or town.
The internet system discussed in the paper is not the
global computer network using the IP (Internet Protocol),but is rather logical architecture of the system applied in
the Internet. As discussed in Green ICT business, we need
the ubiquitous and global scaled sensor and actuator
networks in order to develop and to deploy the energy
aware system. In this paper, the author discusses why the“Internet” is very efficient platform, leading to EcoSystem. Many networks to contribute to energy saving
and to environment preservation, will adapt the IP
technology. However, these networks would be of socalled closed IP network, which is not connected to theglobal Internet.

For many under-discussing/under-developing “future”
networks, even when it would be a closed network, it will
be a global network. However, these may be disconnected,
i.e., fragmented. So as to conduct and to deliver the
innovation, the network should be interconnected withsmaller technical and operational difficulties. Also, it has
been proven by the existing Internet that building the
network by single entity is so/too expensive, but sharedby multiple entities may be far cheaper for all entities.
ISOC (Internet Society; www.isoc.org/) Board ofTrustee (BoT) has a concrete direction regarding thefuture Internet, which is toward the Internet Eco-System.
Eco-system has the sustainability, while preserving thecontinuous innovations. It may not optimal solution, but,as a result, it is flexible and adaptable, against the changeof condition or environment with low cost.
As a background, when we look at large computer
systems, including facility networks, there are manysystems and networks that adapt the IP (Internet Protocol).
However, still, there are many non-IP or closed IP
systems, in the real world. And, many networks andsystems tend to be fragmented, from the view point ofeach company’s business strategy. This is serious
concerning toward the “Eco-System” development.
This paper tries to define the objective and goal of the
future Internet for smarter city or town. It is that; (1)Avoiding the fragmentation of IP systems and networks.,(2) Encourage the collaboration among sub-systems, thatuse IP or may not use IP, (3) Explore the Eco-system, thatdelivers the cheaper system development and deployment,
while preserving the technical and business innovations.

2. Future Internet
2.1. What is an Eco-System?
An Eco-System is a natural unit consisting of all plants,
animals and micro-organisms in an area functioning
together with all of the physical factors of theenvironment. Ecosystems can be permanent or temporary,
in both spatial domain and in time domain. An EcoSystem is a unit of interdependent organisms which sharethe same habitat. Eco-Systems usually form a number offood webs/chains, as the interaction among theindependent organisms.

In the area of economics, the Eco-System is defined as abusiness structure among related organizations (e.g.,
private companies), which form the cooperative andcollaborative business activities to yield benefits andinnovations for themselves.
With the author’s understanding, the followings aresome of required features for Eco-Systems;(1) Independency of individuals and sub-systems
Each individual and sub-system must live or be
operate-able by themselves, at least temporally.
(2) Autonomous operation of individuals and subsystems
Each individual and sub-system can make theiroperational and governance rules by themselves.
(3) Interaction among individuals and sub-systems
Individual and sub-system have some level ofinteraction, e.g., cooperation and collaboration,with other individuals and sub-systems.
(4) Adaptability against the change of environment
Individual and sub-system can adapt themselves,
according to the change of environment.
The existing Internet and the future Internet, discussed
in the following subsection, have the features of EcoSystem described above. Also, the framework of Internetarchitecture could be applied to the other systems, such asenergy system, educational system or e-healthcare system.

of “Invention is the mother of necessity”[3], by theInternet development history. The TCP/IP suite has been
modified and has been added new functions, according to
the real operational experiences. Without the real
operational experiences at the testbeds, we could notrecognize and find the technical innovation or evolution.
This would be a implementation of “Eco-System” in thecomputer networks or information and communication
networks.

2.3. Change of Technical Assumptions
As known as Moor’s law, the IT technologies havebeen achieved the exponential performance improvement
for more than three or four decades. According to thecontinuous improvement of ICT technologies, thetechnical and system assumption for system design has
been significantly changed. The followings are the oldand legacy system and technological assumptions, which
would be long time considered as the given condition.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

2.2. How the Future Internet Looks Like
The professional Internet system has been operated morethan 20 years, while preserving the continuous
introduction of technical innovations. There are many
discussions on “future Internet” or “post Internetarchitecture”.
The Internet architecture does not mean the particular
protocol suites, such as existing TCP/IP. TCP/IP itself has
experienced a lot of protocol modifications and functional
enhancements, during the deployment of global Internet
system. We must recognize that the Internet architectureis the “logical” architecture framework, not the particular
protocol sets nor routers and switches [1]. The Internetarchitecture, of course including the future Internet, must
preserve the following five essential features of theInternet architecture. These are (1) autonomous, (2)distributed, (3) disconnected, (4) inter-domain, and (5)global, operation. The current Internet system has beenchallenged by the following three aspects; global,
ubiquitous and mobility.
According to the experience of development anddeployment of the Internet system and Internetarchitecture, the use of live testbeds has been very
effective to realize the requirements of the system and thefuture direction of research and development. We may
realized the importance of “Experienced Design”[2] andUser and end-station is poor and stupid
Users’ terminal only turns on, when it is needed
Fixed node is far major and superior than mobile
node“service” must be provided either by provider orby enterprise
Cost of transmission, storage and copy, is not little,
but is expensive

Especially, the assumption 5 would be recently realized
a wrong assumption, by the introduction of Peer-to-Peer(P2P) technologies over the transparent IP network. It has
been believed that Internet architecture must betransparent, sometimes said as “stupid network”, as thedefault system architecture, when we design the large
scale computer networks.
The other important paradigm shift from the current
R&D tendency regarding the Internet architecture is
regarding the assumption on the communication model if
the nodes are always connected or not. We havedeveloped and deployed the broadband internet
environment, especially in the developed countries.
However, even in the metropolitan area in the developed
countries, we have experienced the case of disconnection
from the network. In the under-developing counties or in
the country side of developed counties, we have many
geographical areas, which does not have any connectivity
to the Internet.

2.4. Requirements for Future Internet
The followings are the requirements for the futureInternet system, from the view point where how the
future Internet looks like.

(1) Covering our “Earth” with high speed network, i.e.,
global scale Eco-System
According to the significant installation of landcables and submarine-cables in the last decade, thefiber-cable system has been surrounding thesurface of our Earth, including the underdeveloping countries, as a backbone network of
the Earth.
(2) Design and obtain the “earth” scale computer
systemWe could obtain the enough network resource andcomputing resource, which are distributed on the
Earth and are somehow connected by digital
networks.
Here, this computer system is acollection of sub-systems, which can operate
independently, while the sub-systems are somehow
interacting to each other, i.e., as a aspect ofinteraction and independency for Eco-System.
(3) Impossible to accommodate earth with single
technology
We have wide variety of technologies so as toconnect the digital devices. In order to maintainthe continuous innovation of networking
technology, we have to intentionally maintain thecapability of alternativeness in the networking
components. This feature, i.e., diversity andreplace-ability, leads to the aspect of sustainability
and adaptability in Eco-System.
(4) Investment and operation is always autonomous
Installation and operation of system by the single
organization is neither scalable nor realistic. We
have to design the system, which collaborates andcooperates to each other in a distributed andautonomous manner.
(5) We have large area, where we could not be wired
The legacy Internet system (or computer system)
would assume that the nodes are interconnected
via the stable wired cables. However, in thecurrent and future computer networks, the larger
number of nodes is connected to the network via
the various wireless links.
(6) We have large area where, even, wireless would be
hard to use
Though we have a lot of nodes, which areconnected to the network via wireless links, wewill still have a lot of nodes and area, which could
not be connected to the Internet. This will be true
both in country sides and even in metropolitansides.
(7) Uni-Directional Digital Link
The legacy Internet system would assume that thenodes are interconnected via the bi-directional

links. However, the current and future Internet
will use a lot of uni-directional (digital) links.
(8) Real integration between “logistics”
Small size of mobile nodes, such as sensor or
actuator nodes, will be connected to the Internet,
and those nodes would be attached with the wide
variety of objects. A typical object would be of thelogistics, which are likely to the new object and acontribution of the future Internet system. This
could be said as the integration of current cyber
space with the logistics or as the “real-space”
internet.

2.5. Key Components for Future Internet
The followings are some key components for the futureInternet system.
(1) DTN [4]DTN represents Delay Tolerant Networking or Delay
Disruption Networking. The legacy Internetarchitecture has implicitly assumed that thecommunicating peers can mutually transact the IP
packets with a certain and reasonable latency.
However, in order to accommodate all the digitalequipments and human-being on our planet, we could
not assume that all the equipments and human-being
were always connected to the Internet.
(2) Message routing [5][6]The existing Internet system has adopted the (IP)packet routing. In the IP packet routing, the source
node resolves and informs the destination IP address
with TCP/UDP port, before the source node starts thecommunication, i.e., source node initiates thecommunication. However, in the future Internet
system, (a) the source nodes may want to send thedata, without resolving and informing the particular
destination node(s), and (b) the peer nodes may not
be required any state synchronization for data
communication. The message routing, e.g.,
publisher-subscriber model, would be a possible
communication model in the future Internet system.
(3) P2P technology
P2P technological framework would be a key
component of future Internet system. We could
implicate the P2P technology as followed, i.e.,
introduction of three key functions into the existing“naïve” Internet architecture;
1. {networked} Cache and Proxy
2. {networked} DMA (Direct Memory Access)
3. {networked} Virtual memory system (by DHT)

2.6. Deployment of Future Internet
Infrastructure

3. Energy Saving Business “BY” ICT
3.1. Potential of Business Opportunity “by” ICT

In this subsection, the author discusses how the futureInternet infrastructure should be developed and deployed.
(1) “Experienced Design” [2]None of us living with the current Internet system
may know how the future Internet will be. The futureInternet system will be the result of interaction withreal society, i.e., technologies will be modified andmutated via the practical feed-back from the real
operation. In order to adjust with the practical, unexpected and un-forecast-able feed-backs, the initial
future Internet system should have technicalvagueness and room to be able to be added or to bemodified, in the future, as the architecture designprinciple.
(2) “Invention is the mother of necessity” [3]None of us may know how to use new technologies.
Also, the new technologies would introduce the newfunctions or services with their native interfaces. The
emulating the legacy or existing services with newtechnologies may not good for the development of
new technologies. New technologies may eager their“native” applications or services.
(3) Challenging to the theme of physics, economics andmathematics
The networking and digital technologies have been
always challenging the legacy themes. It will betime-domain, geographical-domain or economicaldomain.
(4) Federated networking for the next stage of the“Internet”.
Though many networks will adapt the IP technology,
these networks would be of so-called closed IP
network, which is not connected to the global
Internet.
For
many
under-discussing/underdeveloping “future” networks, even when it would
be a closed network, it will be a global network.
However, these networks may be disconnected, i.e.,fragmented. So as to conduct and to deliver the
innovations, the networks should be able to beinterconnected with smaller technical andoperational difficulties. Also, it has been proven by
the existing Internet that building the network bysingle entity is so/too expensive, but shared bymultiple entities may be far cheaper for all entities;“Eco-System”, that is the aspect of cheaper systemcost. As a result, we should avoid the fragmentationof individual (global) IP networks, as a governanceof digital network development and deployment.

Energy saving and the protection of environment forsustainable society is now global agenda, which we mustachieve for the next generation and for our Earth. This
activity around IT and ICT industry is called as “Green
IT/ICT”. Though the most of the Green IT/ICT would
focus on the energy saving “of” IT/ICT equipments, weare focusing on the energy saving “by” IT/ICT
technologies.
It is said that the revenue contribution by ICT industry
in the GDP is less than 10%. More than 90% revenue iscome from non-ICT industries. Nowadays, almost all thecompanies depend on ICT technology for their corporate
operation. And, how to use the ICT defines themarketing power and operating power of companies.
One of new business area for ICT industry would beenergy saving using the ICT, such as Internet technology.
Figure 1 gives the energy consumption in Japan, as of2005. One third is by manufacturing, one third is byenergy generation and transportation, and last one third is
by daily life by us. Also it shows that offices andresidents consume more than 20% of energy. We are
spending a lot of money on utility or energy.

Figure1 Japanese Energy Consumption in 2005

And, the facility system, such as building system, uses a
lot of proprietary technologies by each segment and byeach company. For example, it has been reported that the
major complex in down-town Tokyo has more than 200 K
monitors and actuators in a single building, while eachsub-systems would use different technologies.
So, we can realize that the energy saving is now“Global” agenda, as well as good new business area for
ICT industry. This is because all the facility components
must be monitored and controlled by computer system, so
as to achieve the effective energy saving performance.
However, the facility system uses a lot of proprietarytechnologies and components have never cooperated toeach other, in the past.
People in facility networking area start to realize thebenefit of open system, such as Internet technology andInternet architecture. We have two important messages
delivered at last INTEROP Tokyo, held in June 2009.
(1) The concept of “smarter planet” offered by IBM,saying to let smarter all the facility and activities bycomputer networks or by ICT. We will havecomputer networks, which will be able to achieve
global scale real-time PDCA cycle.
(2) The fact that a lot of energy consumption is byfacility system, rather than ICT equipments. For
facility system, more than 75% of energy isconsumed by non-ICT equipments, such as HVAC
(i.e., air conditioning system) or by lights.
Some data shows that, surprisingly, the initialconstruction cost and the lifetime utility cost is almost thesame amount. This is a big business potential andincentive for each organization.

3.2. Third Wave of City/Metropolitan Design
Principle
We would be the process of innovation or revolution,
regarding how to design to build the city or metropolis.
(1) The first wave; agricultural age
At this age, the agriculture is the main industry, andthe symbol of valuable assets would be fruitful andfertile land, mainly a farmland. Rich people in theage have larger rich farmland. Therefore, the village
or city was built near the river and the location,
where have good weather. In other words, the mostimportant parameter or component would be a watersupplying infrastructure.
(2) The second wave; industrial age
At this age, the manufacturing is the main industry,
and the symbol of valuable assets would be artificial
products, objects or money. Rich people may love tohave much products or money. Therefore, the city or
metropolis was built at the location, where thelogistics condition is better. In other words, themost important parameter or component to build thecity would be a logistic infrastructure.
(3) The third wave; information age
At this age, the digital intellectual activity would be
the main industry, and the symbol of valuable assets
would be knowledge or intellectual property, withless energy consumption. The best performance on
intellectual activity is recognized as the responsibilityof civilized people or country, and is recognized as
the global agenda. Rich people may love to have richintellectual communication and life. Therefore, thecity or metropolis was built so as to effective network
environment, with effective energy supply anddemand system. In other words, the most importantparameters or components to build the city or town
would be an information infrastructure and energy
SCM(Supply Chain Management) infrastructure.

3.3. Contribution of Internet and Internet
Architecture Framework
The future Internet system, that is a real object of theInternet, will be a nerves system, and the server systems,
such as cloud computing platform, will be a brain, in the
future smart city or smart town, when we compare thesmart city/town with the human-being. Even whenhuman has strong components, e.g., leg, arm, muscle orbone, the human can not work well without coordinatedcontrol among the components. When we have better
coordination and cooperation among the components(organs), we can achieve the same work with less energy,
or we can achieve better work with the same energy
consumption. This means that, so as to achieve an Ecobody in human body, the nerves system and brain mustachieve high performance to integrate all the information
at components, and to control the components. On thecontrary, the components have to run somehow
independently and autonomously. Of course, eachcomponent has diversity and replace-ability, for thesustainability of human body and it’s component. As aresult, the future Internet system will contribute to the
Eco-Social-Infrastructure development through thephysical entity and though the concept of Internetarchitecture framework, discussed in section 2.
When we observe the future computer facility in a city
or in a town, a lot of computers, currently in everyorganization, will move into IDC (Internet Data Center),at least by the following two reasons. Computers widely
spread in cities or in towns can communicate with far
smaller latency and larger bandwidth, since the physicaldistance among the computers can be reduced. Also, thecomputers can be installed stable and better environment,
regarding the temperature control and power supply
management. The other benefit will be the achievementof energy saving as a total system. When we run thecomputers in the individual offices, we must run the airconditioning system 24 hours a day, so as to take care theheat generated by the computers. However, when wemove these computers to IDC, we will be able to reduce
the amount of energy consumption at the {usual} offices.
Energy consumption will move to IDC, since IDC canhave far better operational efficiency than the {usual}office. Based on the above discussion, we are designing
the system and protocol architecture of future Internet
system, especially focusing on the facility networking.
The referenced architecture is shown in figure 2. It is thedatabase-centric architecture. We allow various types offield-bus technologies, while those filed-bus systems
report to the data to {global scale} shared database. Any
application on the Earth can access any data in shared
database using the same API. Also, the control andmanagement API between the field-bus system andapplications are commonly defined.

Figure2 Referenced Architecture for Facility Networks

3.4. Eco-System Development Scenario
The real target of energy saving by ICT is not the energy
saving itself, but is to establish ubiquitous digital sensor
and actuator network environment and to encourage thetechnical innovation/revolution or new applications using
this network platform.
We try to establish the Win-Win relationship between
environment /energy-saving and ubiquitous networking.
As the Step 1, we have to establish the following threemandatory components;
1. Sensors and actuators network
2. Collaborative operation among individualcomponents
3. Control the energy flow using the information.
Then, as the Step 2, we will obtain the ubiquitous digitalspace sharing all the digital information. Here, theimportant point is each equipments and components are
already paid-off for their own objectives. Finally, we
would go into Step3; using this ubiquitous digital space,
we could deliver a lot of inventions, innovations and new
applications using the same infrastructure.
We could realize that this is a yet another “end-to-end”
model that the Internet has achieved. So, the real goal ofenergy saving activities using ICT (and by future Internet
system) is sharing any digital information over the globe,
so to achieve higher efficiency on human and social
activities and to establish the digital network
infrastructure to achieve sustainable innovations.

4. Conclusion
In this paper, first, the requirements, key components
technologies and the methodology of system development/ deployment for the future Internet, which must preserve
the continuous introduction of technical innovations, arediscussed. The Internet architecture must preserve thefollowing five essential features; (1) autonomous, (2)distributed, (3) disconnected, (4) inter-domain, and (5)global, operation. Though many networks will adapt the
IP technology, these networks would be of so-called
closed IP network, which is not connected to the global
Internet. We have to avoid that these networks will be
disconnected, i.e., fragmentation. So as to conduct and todeliver the innovation, the network should be interactedwith smaller technical and operational difficulties. Also, it
has been proven by the existing Internet that building the
network by single entity is so/too expensive, but sharedby multiple entities may be far cheaper for all entities.
Then, this paper discusses the contribution of ICT
system and of the future Internet for energy saving, that is
now global agenda for all the countries and for humanbeing. We should design the energy saving system,
similar as the “Eco-System”, as the existing Internet
system has achieved. By the achievement of sharing any
digital information over the globe, we will be able todeliver higher efficiency on human and social activities
and to establish the digital network infrastructure toachieve sustainable human and social innovations.

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