Daniel S. Stevenson

The SILO Architecture for Services Integration, controL, and Optimization for the Future Internet

We propose a new internetworking architecture that represents a departure from current philosophy and practice, as a contribution to the ongoing debate regarding the future Internet. Building upon our experience with the design and prototyping of the just-in-time protocol suite, we outline a framework consisting of (1) building blocks of fine-grain functionality, (2) explicit support for combining elemental blocks to accomplish highly configurable complex communication tasks, and (3) control elements to facilitate (what is currently referred to as) cross-layer interactions. In this position paper, we take a holistic view of network design, allowing applications to work synergistically with the network architecture and physical layers to select the most appropriate functional blocks and tune their behavior so as to meet the applications needs within resource availability constraints. The proposed architecture is flexible and extensible so as to foster innovation and accommodate change, it supports a unified Internet, it allows for the integration of security and management features at any point in (what is now referred to as) the networking stack, and it is positioned to take advantage of hardware-based performance-enhancing techniques.

Secure communications in ATM networks

High-speed networking technology and standards have progressed dramatically in the past few years and much attention is now focused on deployment efforts, such as the North Carolina Information Highway (NCIH) [7], and applications. With this shift in emphasis, concerns have been raised about information security. Examples of abuse of the Internet abound and unfortunately ATM networks are subject to many of these same abuses. This is of subtanstial concern when thinking about extending the reach of public data networking to broad segments of society.

Just-in-time optical burst switching implementation in the ATDnet all-optical networking testbed

We describe: (i) the architecture of an optical burst switched (OBS) demonstration network overlaying the ATDnet transparent all-optical testbed, and (ii) experiments underway in the testbed. The OBS overlay uses a simple hardware-based protocol embedded in OBS network controllers to manage commercial off-the-shelf DWDM switches. Data paths are all-optical and completely transparent, and can carry analog or digital traffic in any format, data rate, and modulation scheme. Experiments with latency- and jitter-sensitive HDTV transmission, petabyte file transfers, and immersive real time visualization of satellite imagery over the OBS network are ongoing. Parallel research on transport protocols, QoS-aware routing protocols, adaptors for an OBS LAN, and network management architecture are applied as completed. This is the first just-in-time (JIT) OBS field trial known to the authors.

Jumpstart just-in-time signaling protocol: a formal description using extended finite state machines

We present a formal protocol description for a just-in-time (JIT) signaling scheme running over a core dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) network that utilizes optical burst switches (OBSs). We apply an eight-tuple extended finite state machine (EFSM) model to formally specify the protocol. Using the EFSM model, we define the communication between a source client node and a destination client node through an ingress and one or multiple intermediate switches. We work on on-the-fly and persistent unicast connections. The communication between the EFSMs is handled through messages.

JumpStart deployments in ultra-high-performance optical networking testbeds

This article describes deployments of the JumpStart architecture and protocols in several ultra-high-performance optical networking testbeds. JumpStart interoperates with a variety of commercial optical switching gear, and supports operator-, user-, application-, and protocol-initiated ultra-fast lightpath provisioning. We briefly describe JumpStarts data and control plane architectures, and the functionality and performance of its edge and core components. We summarize results from JumpStart testbed demonstrations supporting ultra-fast lightpath provisioning for grids, high-performance file transfers, low-latency zero-jitter interactive visualization, and optical transport using optical burst switching.

VISTAnet: interactive real-time calculation and display of 3-dimensional radiation dose: An application of gigabit networking

Three-dimensional treatment planning can allow the clinician to create plans that are highly individualized for each patient. However, in lifting the constraints traditionally imposed by 2-dimensional planning, the clinician is faced with the need to compare a much larger number of plans. Although methods to automate that process are being developed, it is not yet clear how well they will perform. VISTAnet is a 3 year collaborative effort between the Departments of Radiation Oncology and Computer Science at the University of North Carolina, the North Carolina Supercomputing Center, BellSouth, and GTE with the medical goal of providing real-time 3-dimensional radiation dose calculation and display. With VISTAnet technology and resources, the user can inspect 3-dimensional treatment plans in real-time along with the associated dose volume histograms and can fine tune these plans in real-time with regard to beam position, weighting, wedging, and shape. Thus VISTAnet provides an alternate and, possibly, complementary approach to computerized searches for optimal radiation treatment plans. Building this system has required the development of very fast radiation dose code, methods for simultaneously manipulating and modifying multiple radiation beams, and new visualizations of 3-dimensional dose distributions.

A Unified Software Architecture to Enable Cross-Layer Design in the Future Internet

While research on cross-layer network optimization has been progressing, useful implementations have been lagging because the current Internet architecture does not accommodate cross-layering gracefully. As part of our FIND project, we propose a software architecture for the future Internet that is designed to accommodate such interactions. We present a conceptual overview as well as high level software design and an early prototype implementation, and point out the strengths of our architecture.

Fault management with fast restoration for optical burst switched networks

This paper studies the important fault management issue with focus on the fast restoration mechanisms for optical burst switched (OBS) networks. In order to reduce the burst losses during the restoration process, effective fast restoration schemes are necessary. This is illustrated via two basic fast restoration schemes, the distributed deflection scheme and the local deflection scheme, compared with the slow global routing update mechanism. A novel priority-based QoS restoration scheme is also proposed to provide differentiated restoration services. Through detailed descriptive analysis and a comprehensive simulation study, these fast restoration schemes demonstrate fast restoration process, low fault management overheads, and excellent burst loss performance. As far as we know, this is the first comprehensive study on the restoration mechanisms for OBS networks.

VISTAnet gigabit testbed

The VISTAnet gigabit testbed project features the deployment of a network connecting distant supercomputers and research programs in communications, advanced graphics techniques, and a medical application. It has been established to experiment with and evaluate techniques associated with gigabit networking. The testbed goals, infrastructure, and driving applications are described. Early insights from the testbed activities are presented to identify important problems associated with networked supercomputers and their impact on public broadband integrated services digital networks. The conflict between the performance needs of supercomputer communications and the constraints of cell-oriented communications are identified and discussed. The concepts of metacomputing are introduced along with their network implications. The metacomputing model is applied to the VISTAnet application to illustrate these points. >

Formal description of the jumpstart just-in-time signaling protocol using EFSM

We present a formal protocol description for a Just-In-Time (JIT) signaling scheme running over a core dWDM network which utilizes Optical Burst Switches (OBS). We apply an eight-tuple extended finite state machine (EFSM) model to formally specify the protocol. Using the EFSM model, we define the communication between a source client node and a destination client node through an ingress and one or multiple intermediate switches. We worked on single burst connections that means setting up the connection just before sending a single burst and then closing the connection as soon as the burst is sent. The communication between the EFSMs is handled through message transfer between protocol entities.