We see the emergence of a electronic service industry that is eager to deliver a wide variety of services to end-users. Applications will use these electronic services to implement sophisticated end-user functionality. An example is an enhanced video conferencing application that supports cooperation among multiple parties by combining video conferencing with access to large amounts of archived data, real time data streams, and distributed computing tasks. While the detailed organization of this electronic services market will be driven by market forces, the network research community has to develop technologies that can support a competitive electronic market place in an effective way.
Innovation is needed in a number of areas.
Second, the network has to support the sharing of resources between cooperating traffic streams, i.e. besides supporting QOS at the level of individual connections, it also has support a QOS model at the application level. Third, we have to develop systematic and efficient methods for balancing the constraints and priorities of services competing for network resources. Fourth, we need dynamic mechanisms for electronic commerce. Finally, mechanisms have to be put in place so that services can be provided in a robust and secure manner. In each of the above areas, the electronic services market dictates a broad set of requirements that will have an impact on key network design issues.