1. 1 GENI: Global Environment for Network Innovations Jennifer Rexford On behalf of Allison Mankin (NSF)

2. 2 Is the Internet broken? It is great at what it does. –Everyone should be proud of this. –All sorts of things can be built on top of it. But… –Security is weak and not getting better. –Availability continues to be a challenge. –It is hard to manage and getting harder. –It does not handle mobility well. –A long list, once you start…

3. 3 FIND: Future Internet Design NSF research initiative –Requirements for global network of 10-15 years out? –Re-conceive the network, if we could design from scratch? Conceive the future, by letting go of the present: –This is not change for the sake of change –Rather, it is a chance to free our minds –Figuring out where to go, and then how to get there Perhaps a header format is not the defining piece of a new architecture –Definition and placement of functionality –Not just data plane, but also control and management –And division between end hosts and the network

4. 4 The Importance of Building Systems-oriented computer science research needs to build and try out its ideas to be effective –Paper designs are just idle speculation –Simulation is only occasionally a substitute We need: –Real implementation –Real experience –Real network conditions –Real users –To live in the future

5. 5 GENI Experimental facility –MREFC proposal to build a large-scale facility –Jointly from NSF’s CS directorate, & research community –We are currently at the “Conceptual Design” stage –Will eventually require Congressional approval Global Environment for Network Innovations –Prototyping new architectures –Realistic evaluation –Controlled evaluation –Shared facility –Connecting to real users –Enabling new services See http://www.geni.net

6. 6 Three Key Ideas in GENI Virtualization –Multiple architectures on a shared facility –Amortizes the cost of building the facility –Enables long-running experiments and services Programmable –Enable prototyping and evaluation of new architectures –Enable a revisiting of today’s “layers” Opt-in on a per-user / per-application basis –Attract real users Demand drives deployment / adoption –Connect to the Internet To reach users, and to connect to existing services

7. 7 Slices

8. 8

9. 9 User Opt-in Client Server Proxy

10. 10 Realizing the Ideas Slices embedded in a substrate of resources –Physical network substrate Expandable collection of building block components Nodes / links / subnets –Software management framework Knits building blocks together into a coherent facility Embeds slices in the physical substrate Builds on ideas in past systems –PlanetLab, Emulab, ORBIT, X-Bone, …

11. 11 Challenges in Realizing the Goals of GENI Jennifer Rexford Princeton University

12. 12 What is the Goal of GENI? Network architecture research –Revisit the definition and placement of function –For better security, scalability, manageability, … Enable evaluation of network architectures –In a controlled and realistic fashion –With long-running deployment studies –With real user traffic, and real network conditions Challenges –Using GENI effectively –Designing, building, and running GENI

13. 13 Challenge #1: Theory and Systems “Clean-slate” network architecture research –Creative ideas unconstrained by existing artifacts –A chance for theory to drive future architectures –… and to finally have a “science of design” for networks Emphasis on deployment and experimentation –Evaluation of prototypes under realistic conditions –A chance for systems work to drive future architectures –… and to finally have a “tech transfer” path Can we connect good theory with good systems? –Turning distributed algorithms into network protocols

14. 14 Challenge #2: Revisiting the Layers Today’s architecture is a collection of layers –Application, transport, network, link, … –Organizing principle for networking textbooks –Fragmentation of the research community Revisiting the division of functionality is hard –Inherently a “cross-layer” research problem –Benefits from expertise across multiple layers Can we, as researchers, cross the layer boundaries? –And create tools for decomposing a system, and analyzing the resulting complexity?

15. 15 Example Research Questions Traffic management –Today: congestion control (end hosts), routing protocols (routers), and traffic engineering (network operators) –Tomorrow: discovering the right division of labor Scalable routing –Today: exciting theoretical results in compact routing –Tomorrow: turning those into network protocols Mobile hosts –Today: network backbone ignores host mobility –Tomorrow: wired-network support for mobile hosts Adversarial settings –Today: protocols based on trust in the participants –Tomorrow: protocols that are robust to greed and malice

16. 16 These are Hard Problems Interdisciplinary research is hard –Theory and systems –Crossing, and revisiting, the layers But these issues are at the core of networking –We must grapple with them –Not just to “fix the Internet”, but also as scholars To move networking from a problem domain to an intellectual discipline To teach our students better GENI is an enabler, but not a solution

17. 17 Building Networks like GENI Programmable virtual networks –A distributed, programmable experimental facility –Shared on a small timescale, carrying real user traffic Theoretical challenges –Embedding a virtual topology in a shared substrate –Coordinating resource allocation across a federation Platform for investigating the challenges –VINI: VIrtual Network Infrastructure –http://www.cs.princeton.edu/~jrex/virtual.htmlhttp://www.cs.princeton.edu/~jrex/virtual.html Maybe net virtualization is itself an architecture –No “One Architecture to Rule Them All”…