A Requirements Analysis for the Protocol Stack of the Future Internet

This paper refers to the problem of defining a proper requirements structure able to reflect the complexities to be expected in the Future Internet. The approach relies on the requirements addressed by end-users (customers of network service providers/consumers of network services), operators, and on the structuring of the networks that can be seen on industry fora. It reveals a complex set of intertwined requirements, a matrix structure with simple functional blocks and layered structures augmented by an inter-operator dimension.