Bruce S. Davie

Experiences with a high-speed network adaptor: a software perspective

This paper describes our experiences, from a software perspective, with the OSIRIS network adaptor. It first identifies the problems we encountered while programming OSIRIS and optimizing network performance, and outlines how we either addressed them in the software, or had to modify the hardware. It then describes the opportunities provided by OSIRIS that we were able to exploit in the host operating system (OS); opportunities that suggested techniques for making the OS more effective in delivering network data to application programs. The most novel of these techniques, called application device channels , gives application programs running in user space direct access to the adaptor. The paper concludes with the lessons drawn from this work, which we believe will benefit the designers of future network adaptors.

Self-verifying names for read-only named data

Information-centric networks must ensure the authenticity and integrity of named data. ICN designs such as Content-Centric Networking apply a digital signature to a collection of packets for this purpose. This paper shifts the mode of ICN authentication: Self-verifying names ensure data authenticity for read-only named data; signatures or other means ensure name authenticity. The paper considers how self-verifying names might be used in CCN.

The AURORA gigabit testbed

Abstract AURORA is one of five U.S. networking testbeds charged with exploring applications of, and technologies necessary for, networks operating at gigabit per second or higher bandwidths. The emphasis of the AURORA testbed, distinct from the other four testbeds, BLANCA, CASA, NECTAR and VISTANET, is research into the supporting technologies for gigabit networking. Like the other testbeds, AURORA itself is an experiment in collaboration, where government initiative (in the form of the Corporation for National Research Initiatives, which is funded by DARPA and the National Science Foundation) has spurred interaction among pre-existing centers of excellence in industry, academia, and government. AURORA has been charged with research into networking technologies that will underpin future high-speed networks. This paper provides an overview of the goals and methodologies employed in AURORA, and points to some preliminary results from our first year of research, ranging from analytic results to experimental prototype hardware. This paper enunciates our targets, which include new software architectures, network abstractions, and hardware technologies, as well as applications for our work.

Technical challenges in the delivery of interprovider QoS

Following a brief look at the motivations behind the move toward interprovider QoS, this article examines the technical challenges such a move presents. These challenges broadly fit into the related areas of service agreements and performance measurements. The background, requirements, concerns, and solution options for the topics of performance metrics, service classes, service requirements, performance measurements, and provider interconnection models are presented. In conclusion, we summarize the challenges and how they are being addressed.

Tag switching architecture overview

Tag switching is a way to combine the label-swapping forwarding paradigm with network-layer routing with particular application to the Internet. This has several advantages. Tags can have a wide spectrum of forwarding granularities, so at one end of the spectrum a tag could be associated with a group of destinations, while at the other end, a tag could be associated with a single application flow. At the same time, forwarding based on tag switching, due to its simplicity, is well suited to high-performance forwarding. These factors facilitate the development of a routing system that is both functionally rich and scalable. Last, tag switching simplifies the integration of routers and asynchronous transfer mode switches by employing common addressing, routing, and management procedures.

Making the world (of communications) a different place

How might the computing and communications world be materially different in 10 to 15 years, and how might we define a research agenda that would get us to that world?

An overview of the AURORA gigabit testbed

AURORA is one of five US testbeds charged with exploring applications of, and technologies necessary for, networks operating at gigabit per second or higher bandwidths. The authors provide an overview of the goals and methodologies employed in AURORA and report preliminary results from the first year of research. AURORA is an experiment in collaboration, where government support has spurred interaction among centers of excellence in industry, academia, and government. The emphasis of the AURORA testbed is research into the supporting technologies for gigabit networking. The targets include new software architectures, network abstractions, hardware technologies, and applications. The AURORA testbed will provide a platform in which researchers can explore business and scientific applications of gigabit networks, while evolving the network architecture to meet the needs of these emerging applications.<<ETX>>

Deployment experience with differentiated services

While ubiquitous QoS mechanisms are not yet deployed widely across the public Internet, the Differentiated Services (diffserv) architecture has in fact proven itself to be a good match for the technical needs of many service providers. In this paper we consider the state of deployment of QoS mechanisms in large service provider IP networks (many of which happen to be offering VPN or VoIP services rather than public Internet service.) We discuss the factors that have helped and hindered the deployment of QoS mechanisms in general and diffserv in particular. We conclude that many if not most of the barriers to QoS deployment are business issues rather than technical shortcomings of the existing QoS architectures.

Chapter 10 – Intrusion Response Systems: A Survey

Publisher Summary This chapter considers the distributed systems as composed of multiple services and the services interact with one another through standardized network protocols. It describes the primary Intrusion Response Systems (IRSs) and label each in one of the following four categories. IRSs, called static decision making, provides a static mapping of the alert from the detector to the response that is to be deployed. The second class, called dynamic decision making, reasons about an ongoing attack based on the observed alerts and determines an appropriate response to take. The third class, called intrusion tolerance through diverse replicas, provides masking of security failures through the use of diverse replicas concurrently for performing security critical functions. The fourth class includes IRSs meant to target specific kinds of attacks, with our focus being on distributed denial-of-service attacks. Then, we present a discussion on the nascent field of benchmarking of IRSs. Finally, the chapter presents five key areas in which IRSs need to evolve for a widespread adoption. In addition, it considers the metrics that are relevant for evaluating an IRS.

Optical Network Survivability

Publisher Summary This chapter gives a brief overview of optical network survivability. Engineering the network for survivability plays an increasingly important role in transport networks. Protection techniques are well established in Synchronous Optical Networking (SONET) and Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH) and include point-to-point, dedicated protection rings, and shared protection rings. Point-to-point protection schemes work for simple systems with diverse fiber routes between node locations. In addition, optical channel layer protection is needed if some channels are to be protected while others are not. Optical multiplex section (OMS) layer protection is more cost effective for those cases where all the traffic needs to be protected. The optical layer consists of the optical channel layer (or path layer), the OMS layer (or line layer), and the optical transmission section layer. The choice of protection schemes is dictated primarily by the service classes to be supported and by the type of equipment deployed. In the SONET/SDH world, protection is performed primarily by the SONET/SDH line terminals and add/drop multiplexers and not by digital cross connects.