A look behind the future internet architectures efforts

The Future Internet Architectures (FIA) constitutes a 10-year effort by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) that was launched in 2006, with the announcement of the Future INternet Design (FIND) research area within a Network Technologies and Systems (NeTS) program solicitation. This solicitation outlined a three-phase program to ``rethink'' the Internet, beginning with FIND and culminating in the recently announced two-year awards for Future Internet Architecture--Next Phase (FIA-NP). Because many readers may not be familiar with the thinking behind this effort, this article aims to provide a historical context and background for the technical papers included in this issue.