CAREER: Argus: A Measurement-informed Learning Approach to Managing Multi-cloud Networks

University Of Oregon Eugene, Eugene OR

Investigators

Abstract

Multi-cloud networks are federations of private network infrastructures from the distinct cloud and third-party providers, and serve as increasingly vital underlays for a range of application domains such as genomics, healthcare, and high performance computing. This emerging connectivity paradigm poses significant management barriers to enterprises that seek to deploy overlays and applications due to providers' distinct operational practices, privacy concerns, egress costs, among others. This CAREER project will investigate a novel measurement-informed learning-based framework called Argus to significantly lower the management barriers faced by modern enterprises. This project will focus on scientific inquiries in three synergistic thrusts to realize the Argus framework. First, it will design calibrated measurement tools and techniques, using which enterprises can gain visibility into the federated underlays. Second, adhering to the privacy concerns of providers, it will investigate learning-based modeling capabilities, using which enterprises can accurately infer, localize, and attribute performance bottlenecks to appropriate providers. Third, it will take a principled approach to design a management capability, using which enterprises can effectively and efficiently navigate egress costs and operational goals while avoiding inferred performance bottlenecks. This project's goal is to lower multi-cloud management barriers, to enhance the operational productivity of enterprises, and to foster breakthroughs in the aforementioned domains and beyond. The research will be tightly integrated with education, emphasizing experiential learning. Activities include inviting underrepresented students from local community colleges to participate in a mini-research experience, organizing virtual summer schools on project-related topics, involving undergraduates in research, and developing a curriculum on multi-cloud networks. Software artifacts, publications, and course materials resulting from this project will be made available at https://ix.cs.uoregon.edu/~ram/CAREER.html. The website will be actively maintained during the entire period of the project, and for at least one year past the ending of the project. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.