NeTS-NR: A Measurement-Driven Approach to Internet Protocol and Systems Design

Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh PA

Investigators

Abstract

Proposal Number: 0435382 PI: Bruce Maggs Institution: Carnegie Mellon University Title: A Measurement-Driven Approach to Internet Protocol and System Design Abstract: The sheer size and complexity of the Internet today has made it difficult for network researchers to evaluate the impact that protocol changes may have on its operation. The basic problem is that it is difficult to deploy new protocols widely enough for testing purposes. In response, this project uses a novel approach (Measurement-Driven Protocol Design) that combines large-scale measurements of the Internet with the design of new protocols. Large-scale measurements enable accurate emulation- and simulation-based evaluation of protocol behavior and, thus, are the key to doing the "what if" analysis for many protocol designs. This measure-to-evaluate approach enables the project to make significant contributions to the areas of protocol and system design. This project develops this new methodology as part a number of specific research thrusts that, in combination, push the state-of-the-art in both standard IP and overlay routing. Specifically, the project expects to make the following major contributions: 1) novel designs for wide-area IP routing incorporating techniques for diagnosing inter-domain routing problems and inter-domain traffic engineering, 2) significant improvements to overlay routing through new streaming multimedia overlay designs and reflector networks optimizations, and 3) optimization of access networks' performance and availability using a novel combination of overlay and IP routing techniques. In addition to the methodology and protocols developed, a significant fraction of the measurements made as part of this research will be made available for research and education. In order to make them available, this project also explores anonymization techniques for network measurements.