The Future of Internet Research Scott Shenker (on behalf of many networking collaborators)

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

Design Simulation / Emulation Experiment At Scale

Deployment

(code)

(results)

(measurements)

A Piece is Missing!

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!

Each Researcher Gets a “Slice” of GENI

And They Don’t Interfere

User Opt-in

Client

Server

Proxy

National Fiber Facility

+ Programmable Routers

+ Clusters at Edge Sites

+ Wireless Subnets

+ 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