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Approximate Networking. H. T. Kung Harvard University Panel 1 on “ What Are the Biggest Opportunities in Networking Problem ?” NITRD Workshop on Complex Engineered Networks Washington, DC September 20-21, 2012. Wireless Networking Is Important But.
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Approximate Networking H. T. Kung Harvard University Panel 1 on “What Are the Biggest Opportunities in Networking Problem?” NITRD Workshop on Complex Engineered NetworksWashington, DCSeptember 20-21, 2012
Wireless Networking Is ImportantBut ... • Peak bandwidth is physically limited for any given frequency band • Further exploitation in diversity (e.g., multipath and fine-grained beamforming gains) is getting increasingly difficult • Gap in meeting application demands is growing • We need to find ways to fill the gap without violating Shannon's capacity theorem
Fortunately, There Are Opportunities • Many applications don’t need networks for exact packet delivery. That is, approximate input and results can be tolerated. For example: • Sensor data processing • Big data analysis • Probability distribution estimation • Multimedia object recognition and tracking • Machine learning • Biologically inspired systems • For these applications, approximate networking may be sufficient: • Deliver fraction of packets • Deliver approximate packets • Deliver combined packets
Advantages of Approximate Networking • Use approximate network node hardware and protocols, and traffic-reducing networks • Allow efficient, inexpensive and scalablenetworks, and nanoscale post-CMOS implementations which are inherently less deterministic • Enable new security means. E.g., integrated encryption and compression, that is, compressing phenomena (population distributions) encrypted in secret distortion distributions, rather than insesurecompression followed by encryption • Can exploit theory in network coding and compressive sensing(e.g., any received linear combinations of packets are useful)
Summary • We have argued that approximate networking, especially for wireless networking, is a good opportunity for future networking