Network management is costly and error prone. At best, this imposes a tremendous cost on industry. Worse, it compromises critical infrastructure that increasingly relies on the Internet, such as power and emergency services. The difficulty of network management derives from the fact that the Internet was invented without a network management architecture. Rather, there are a plethora of after-the-fact management tools and objects.
This project is a ground-up redesign of network management based on three core concepts. First is a low-level, self-configuring communication channel that allows software network managers to discover devices and other managers. This channel allows the management system to function even when higher level protocols do not. Second is an abstract interface that allows network modules to represent themselves in simple ways. This abstraction allows management systems to understand the network without understanding the details of protocol operation. Third is a declarative configuration language that allows human managers to specify network operation in goal-oriented terms. This language allows managers to focus on what the network is supposed to accomplish, instead of how.
This research will reduce the manpower and expertise needed to manage networks, increase their reliability, and ultimately lead towards largely self-managing networks.
This research will be tested and deployed in Emulab, a large network testbed used by thousands of researchers. Methods hardened in Emulab can serve as the basis for management of the GENI infrastructure, where the ideas can be further tested and refined. GENI in turn will serve as a proof-of-concept for industry adoption.
