Towards a Well-Managed Next Generation Internet! Hot Research Topics in Next Generation Internet Panel NY Systems/Networking Summit, NYU Aman Shaikh AT&T Labs – Research November 17, 2006

NY Systems/Networking Summit, 2006 Slide 2 Jen/Paul/Aman Generation Internet Internet is not built with manageability in mind –Hard to answer basic questions, e.g., “What path traffic took from A to B some x hours ago?” –Much of Network Management is “reactive”! Network core is not simple –Scale, geographical span, diversity, constant churn Best effort is not enough! –We rely on the Internet for pretty much everything Statistics Optical networking IP/MPLS networking Data mining Algorithms Visualization Security Machine Learning Automation Software Business

NY Systems/Networking Summit, 2006 Slide 3 What Are Network Management Tasks? Network trouble-shooting Maintenance/upgrades Configuration management Security Customer provisioning SLAs …

NY Systems/Networking Summit, 2006 Slide 4 Trouble-shooting Trouble-shooting Life-cycle –Monitor, Detect, Localize, Diagnose, Fix and Verify Vision: rapid, automated response –How to assure every step of trouble-shooting lifecycle is extremely fast? Challenges –Monitoring How to gain maximum information about the network with minimal effort? –Detection How to find (possibly large) needles in (massive) haystacks? –Localization/Diagnosis Need to build diagnosis capabilities into the protocols –Fix Need seamless workflow and business processes –Verify Need models for “normal” operation of the network Can we design next generation Internet so that we don’t have to trouble-shoot?

NY Systems/Networking Summit, 2006 Slide 5 Maintenance/Upgrade Maintenance/Upgrades Life-cycle –“Day-shift”: schedule, “Night-shift”: perform upgrade Vision: pain-free, seamless maintenance/upgrade -- both for operators and customers Challenges –Scheduling Handle huge scale and large set of constraints Gauge impact of a proposed maintenance/upgrade on network and customers –Performing maintenance/upgrade Design protocols so that they can be upgraded with minimal churn Design equipments so that they can be upgraded in service Design mechanisms and checks to reduce chances that maintenance/upgrade goes wrong –But if it does go wrong, how to back out quickly and smoothly?

NY Systems/Networking Summit, 2006 Slide 6 Configuration Management Configuration: operators’ interface to network Vision: expressive, flexible, robust config mechanisms Challenges –Configuration languages Allow operators to express their intent directly and flexibly Move to network-wide config from per-device config –Configuring and tuning the parameters and knobs Need to move from trial-and-error to science Can we design systems and protocols that adapt behavior based on performance goals and observed performance?

NY Systems/Networking Summit, 2006 Slide 7 “Measure, Model, Control” for Management of Next Generation Internet Measure: continuously check the health of the network –Data plane and control plane Model: accurate “what-if” analysis –Ability to gauge the impact of possible internal/external changes Control: steer network towards desired operating point in an automated and efficient manner Topology, Configuration, Workflow Offered Traffic, Routing, Fault Changes to the network Network Network-wide “what if” model measure control

NY Systems/Networking Summit, 2006 Slide 8 More Information … Operations and Management of IP Networks: What Researchers Should Know Happy Network Administrators => Happy Packets => Happy Users