21 research outputs found
Why (and How) Networks Should Run Themselves
The proliferation of networked devices, systems, and applications that we
depend on every day makes managing networks more important than ever. The
increasing security, availability, and performance demands of these
applications suggest that these increasingly difficult network management
problems be solved in real time, across a complex web of interacting protocols
and systems. Alas, just as the importance of network management has increased,
the network has grown so complex that it is seemingly unmanageable. In this new
era, network management requires a fundamentally new approach. Instead of
optimizations based on closed-form analysis of individual protocols, network
operators need data-driven, machine-learning-based models of end-to-end and
application performance based on high-level policy goals and a holistic view of
the underlying components. Instead of anomaly detection algorithms that operate
on offline analysis of network traces, operators need classification and
detection algorithms that can make real-time, closed-loop decisions. Networks
should learn to drive themselves. This paper explores this concept, discussing
how we might attain this ambitious goal by more closely coupling measurement
with real-time control and by relying on learning for inference and prediction
about a networked application or system, as opposed to closed-form analysis of
individual protocols
Recommended from our members
FABRIC: A National-Scale Programmable Experimental Network Infrastructure
FABRIC is a unique national research infrastructure to enable cutting-edge and exploratory research at-scale in networking, cybersecurity, distributed computing and storage systems, machine learning, and science applications. It is an everywhere-programmable nationwide instrument comprised of novel extensible network elements equipped with large amounts of compute and storage, interconnected by high speed, dedicated optical links. It will connect a number of specialized testbeds for cloud research (NSF Cloud testbeds CloudLab and Chameleon), for research beyond 5G technologies (Platforms for Advanced Wireless Research or PAWR), as well as production high-performance computing facilities and science instruments to create a rich fabric for a wide variety of experimental activities
Distributed Consistent Network Updates in SDNs: Local Verification for Global Guarantees
While SDNs enable more flexible and adaptive network operations, (logically)
centralized reconfigurations introduce overheads and delays, which can limit
network reactivity. This paper initiates the study of a more distributed
approach, in which the consistent network updates are implemented by the
switches and routers directly in the data plane. In particular, our approach
leverages concepts from local proof labeling systems, which allows the data
plane elements to locally check network properties, and we show that this is
sufficient to obtain global network guarantees. We demonstrate our approach
considering three fundamental use cases, and analyze its benefits in terms of
performance and fault-tolerance.Comment: Appears in IEEE NCA 201