Towards an Internet Connectivity Market

Today's Internet achieves end-to-end connectivity through bilateral contracts between neighboring networks; unfortu- nately, this "one size fits all" connectivity results in less effi- cient paths, unsold capacity and unmet demand, and some- times catastrophic market failures that result in global dis- connectivity. This paper presents the design and evaluation of MINT, a Market for Internet Transit. MINT is a connec- tivity market and corresponding set of protocols that allows ISPs to offer path segments on an open market. Edge net- works bid for end-to-endpaths, and a mediator matches bids for paths to collections of path segments that form end-to- end paths. MINT can be deployed using protocols that are present in today's routers, and it operates in parallel with the existing routing infrastructure and connectivity market. We present MINT's market model and protocol design; evaluate how MINT improvesefficiency, the utility of edge networks, and the profits of transit networks; and how MINT can oper- ate at Internet scale.