Toward the EthicNet: Challenges and Enablers for Ethics-Aware Networks

Recently, the awareness is gaining ground that technology, at large, should participate in the sustainable and inclusive development of society. In such a context, the concept of Key Value Indicators (KVls) as complements of the widely used Key Performance Indicators (KPls) has been introduced and is obtaining the increasing interest of scientists in most research fields. Computer networking is not an exception and in the last few years research activities and results on the subject are being published. In this perspective, contributions of this article are manifold and can be summarized as follows. First, the Value of Service (VoS) framework is introduced which integrates KVls and KPls to extend concepts like Quality of Service (QoS) and Quality of Experience (QoE). Then, a high-level architecture for a network centered on the VoS concept, which we name EthicNet, is proposed and described and its founding enabling technologies identified. Finally, the most compelling and urgent open research issues are discussed.