| 15 | The performance of many network systems depends on the behavior of |
| 16 | aggregate Internet traffic, which follows rules and statistics that |
| 17 | are poorly understood. The usefulness of many applications depends on |
| 18 | interactions between human beings, which are difficult to |
| 19 | simulate. This implies that many GENI-based projects will need to use |
| 20 | operational network traffic in order to produce reliable results. |
| 21 | |
| 22 | Many researchers hesitate to use operational network traffic, since |
| 23 | there are many ethical and administrative issues related to using |
| 24 | operational network traffic. These include: |
| 25 | |
| 26 | What privacy expectations do network users have? |
| 27 | |
| 28 | What privacy expectations should network users have? |
| 29 | |
| 30 | What are the liability implications for experimenters, universities, |
| 31 | businesses and funding agencies of experimentation using network |
| 32 | traffic containing information from individual users? |
| 33 | |
| 34 | Is it necessary (should it be necessary) for individual users to |
| 35 | approve network experiments using their data flows? |
| 36 | |
| 37 | What safeguards should be provided to prevent disturbing network |
| 38 | operations? |
| 39 | |
| 40 | What types of experiments on operational network traffic should not be |
| 41 | performed? |
| 42 | |
| 43 | What steps should a prudent experimenter take before using operational |
| 44 | data? |
| 45 | |
| 46 | Are there different classes of users that need to be considered |
| 47 | (ex. students at the local university with IT approval, users who |
| 48 | agree to join in a prototype system, the public at large)? |
| 49 | |
| 50 | This session will be a group discussion of these issues. One case |
| 51 | history will be provided for a project using operational traffic. The |
| 52 | role of the Institutional Review Board (IRB) will be discussed and |
| 53 | reviewed. |