Credit-based network management

Abstract

Increasingly, a computer network administrator's job is pre-occupied with user behavioral problems rather than physical failures of network and system components. A small number of malicious users can cause problems that affect a large number of users; more often, by not following proper procedures a user may let his/her system be used by malicious users; and there are various other misuses that all leave the network in a state of the tragedy of the commons. In this paper, we introduce the concept of credit-based networking - borrowing ideas from financial management and adapting them to network management. We first focus on a campus network by studying concrete scenarios of how credit-based network management can be applied. We then discuss how the concept is generally applicable to managing network behaviors as well by applying it to managing ISP peering relationships. We argue that the cascading effect of credit-based network management can enhance network management efficiency and improve the global network environment we all live in.