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