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The Future of Internet Research. Scott Shenker (on behalf of many networking collaborators). Why Not “The Future of the Internet”?. We always miss the latest application trends: P2P, Web 2.0, YouTube, etc. We focus on underlying infrastructure (IP, etc.)
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The Future of Internet Research Scott Shenker (on behalf of many networking collaborators)
Why Not “The Future of the Internet”? • We always miss the latest application trends: • P2P, Web 2.0, YouTube, etc. • We focus on underlying infrastructure (IP, etc.) • Building a network that can support the next big thing without knowing what it is in advance • Our record of research impact is mixed
Recent Impact of Networking Research • Better technologies: optical, wireless, switches • Better understanding: measurement, theory • Incrementally deployable: AFD, TFRC, IDS • Radical architectural innovation: none Why have we failed?
Failure of Need? • Many think the current Internet architecture will never be sufficiently secure or reliable • Must also deal with many new requirements: • Ubiquitous embedded sensors • Optical switching • New wireless technologies • ……..
Failure of Imagination? • Many promising ideas in the literature • New ideas being floated in every conference • Some are “clean-slate” redesigns of the Internet
Failure of Deployment? • Not really….. • Even if we were put in charge of the Internet, we wouldn’t know what new architecture to adopt!
Failure of Evaluation! • Conferences are littered with promising proposals • But we can’t tell the good ideas from the bad • Because we never see them in operation • Evaluations: simulation and toy-deployments • Architecture is no longer an experimental science • It has become science fiction
The Research Cycle A Piece is Missing! Deployment Design Simulation / Emulation Experiment At Scale (code) (results) (measurements)
What About Traditional Testbeds? • Production testbeds: • Can’t try radical experiments • Experimental testbeds: • No real users • Not much better than simulation • Both kinds of testbeds: • Only one experiment at a time • Limited to sites directly connected to testbed • Hard to program
What We’d Really Like • Usable by many experiments simultaneously • Easily programmable • Can experiment on any level (optical to apps) • Users can “opt-in” even from remote locations • Reasonably large scale
Be Careful What You Ask For….. • NSF is proposing to build a large experimental facility for networking research • GENI: Global Environment for Network Innovations • Funded by NSF’s Major Research Equipment and Facilities Construction (MREFC) account • This would be computer science’s first MREFC
GENI Design Principles • GENI is comprised of network resources • Links, nodes, subnets,… • Resources are virtualizable and programmable • Can be partitioned among many researchers • Can implement radical new designs • Researchers can program GENI at any level of abstraction • Optical, IP, application,….
GENI Design Principles (cont’d) • Wide variety of networking technologies • Optical, wireless, sensors, phones,… • Large-scale (~25 PoPs) • Users can access GENI through overlay This is PlanetLab on Steroids!
User Opt-in Client Server Proxy
+ ISP Peers MAE-West MAE-East
GENI Will Enable Us To… • Experiment at scale • 1000s of simultaneous experiments • Long-running services (operational experience) • Integrate our designs
Process • GENI still undergoing evaluation and review • Soonest funding in 2009 • Relevant bodies: • Interim planning group • GENI Science Council • GENI Project Office (bid not awarded yet) • What about the research on GENI?
NSF Funding Architectural Research • NSF’s Future InterNet Design (FIND) Program • Funding “clean-slate” research • No constraints on backwards compatibility • Effort being coordinated by David Clark
Example Ideas • Accountable and diagnosable Internet • Data-oriented pub/sub Internet • Internet without addresses (only names) • Secure enterprise networks • Super-robust routing algorithms
Clean-Slate as Means, Not End • No one expects direct adoption of radical ideas • It is the ideas that will have impact Clean-slate designs Insights Better Internet
Herding Cats • Facility and funding are not enough • Community must work together • Architecture is not simple sum of 300 papers • Product of synthesis and collaboration • FIND’s goal is to have community eventually develop a “few” coherent architectures
What Does This Mean for Us? Two important changes: • From science fiction to engineering • More experimental focus, enabled by GENI • From publish-or-perish PIs to community effort • Drive towards coherent architecture This is the future of Internet reseach!
What Does This Mean for You? • A better Internet…. • ….we just don’t know what it looks like yet.
For More Information • www.geni.net • Discussion Mailing List • GENI Design Document (GDD) Series