Conference: Towards Re-architecting Today's Internet for Survivability

Northwestern University, Evanston IL

Investigators

Abstract

Over the past decades, the Internet has undergone a major change from being primarily a research-oriented network for academics to becoming a cyber-physical infrastructure “critical” for modern society in general and the global economy in particular. This transformation has occurred largely by happenstance, rather than by design, and under the assumption that the current architecture that has ensured its robustness in the past would be sufficient to provide the robustness now expected from it. To re-architect today’s Internet as critical infrastructure requires a new understanding of the architectural principles on which it should be based on. It requires a reassessment of the possible scenarios that can challenge the network’s basic functioning and the threats that can arise as a result of the network’s constant evolution. At the same time, it must explore paths for incremental deployment that embed the necessary incentives for adoption. Given the close interdependence of the Internet and the power grid, both the analysis of potential threats, as well as any re-design to enhance survivability, must consider both systems in parallel and inform each other’s progress. The success of this proposed effort depends on close collaborations among a broad and interdisciplinary team of scientists, including networking researchers, power/smart grid experts, economists, and social science researchers. The goal of the workshop is to bring together an initial group of national and international experts to develop a transformative research agenda towards re-architecting tomorrow’s Internet for survivability, ensuring that the network is able to fulfill its mission even in the presence of large-scale catastrophic events. 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.