Collaborative Research: NeTS-NBD: Traffic Engineering in an Uncertain World

Yale University, New Haven CT

Investigators

Abstract

The Internet has become a critical infrastructure of the modern society, carrying the traffic of many mission-critical applications. As a result, the efficiency and reliability of the backbone networks of the Internet have major societal impacts. Uncertainties, which arise due to unpredictable network events and traffic variations, and the competitive, decentralized nature of the Internet, are major challenges to improve the efficiency, reliability, and availability of the Internet. This project develops effective and novel techniques to enable efficient and reliable traffic engineering in the presence of uncertainties. Its research consists of three major technical components: 1) COPE: Common-case Optimization with Penalty Envelope; 2) SITE: Symbiotic Inter-domain Traffic Engineering; and 3) Integration of COPE and SITE. Together, they provide a complete traffic engineering solution. Broader Impacts: The research significantly advances the state of the art in traffic engineering. The techniques and toolkit resulted from the research deepens the understanding of traffic engineering and provides significant practical values in improving real IP network operations. In addition, the general principles behind the technical designs for addressing uncertainties have applications beyond traffic engineering.