GENI: Global Environment for Network Innovations

GENI: Global Environment for Network Innovations Jennifer Rexford On behalf of Allison Mankin (NSF)

Is the Internet broken? • It is great at what it does. • Everyone should be proud of this. • All sorts of things can be built on top of it. • But… • Security is weak and not getting better. • Availability continues to be a challenge. • It is hard to manage and getting harder. • It does not handle mobility well. • A long list, once you start…

FIND: Future Internet Design • NSF research initiative • Requirements for global network of 10-15 years out? • Re-conceive the network, if we could design from scratch? • Conceive the future, by letting go of the present: • This is not change for the sake of change • Rather, it is a chance to free our minds • Figuring out where to go, and then how to get there • Perhaps a header format is not the defining piece of a new architecture • Definition and placement of functionality • Not just data plane, but also control and management • And division between end hosts and the network

The Importance of Building • Systems-oriented computer science research needs to build and try out its ideas to be effective • Paper designs are just idle speculation • Simulation is only occasionally a substitute • We need: • Real implementation • Real experience • Real network conditions • Real users • To live in the future

GENI • Experimental facility • MREFC proposal to build a large-scale facility • Jointly from NSF’s CS directorate, & research community • We are currently at the “Conceptual Design” stage • Will eventually require Congressional approval • Global Environment for Network Innovations • Prototyping new architectures • Realistic evaluation • Controlled evaluation • Shared facility • Connecting to real users • Enabling new services See http://www.geni.net

Three Key Ideas in GENI • Virtualization • Multiple architectures on a shared facility • Amortizes the cost of building the facility • Enables long-running experiments and services • Programmable • Enable prototyping and evaluation of new architectures • Enable a revisiting of today’s “layers” • Opt-in on a per-user / per-application basis • Attract real users • Demand drives deployment / adoption • Connect to the Internet • To reach users, and to connect to existing services

Slices

Server User Opt-in Client Proxy

Realizing the Ideas • Slices embedded in a substrate of resources • Physical network substrate • Expandable collection of building block components • Nodes / links / subnets • Software management framework • Knits building blocks together into a coherent facility • Embeds slices in the physical substrate • Builds on ideas in past systems • PlanetLab, Emulab, ORBIT, X-Bone, …

Challenges in Realizing the Goals of GENI Jennifer RexfordPrinceton University

What is the Goal of GENI? • Network architecture research • Revisit the definition and placement of function • For better security, scalability, manageability, … • Enable evaluation of network architectures • In a controlled and realistic fashion • With long-running deployment studies • With real user traffic, and real network conditions • Challenges • Using GENI effectively • Designing, building, and running GENI

Challenge #1: Theory and Systems • “Clean-slate” network architecture research • Creative ideas unconstrained by existing artifacts • A chance for theory to drive future architectures • … and to finally have a “science of design” for networks • Emphasis on deployment and experimentation • Evaluation of prototypes under realistic conditions • A chance for systems work to drive future architectures • … and to finally have a “tech transfer” path • Can we connect good theory with good systems? • Turning distributed algorithms into network protocols

Challenge #2: Revisiting the Layers • Today’s architecture is a collection of layers • Application, transport, network, link, … • Organizing principle for networking textbooks • Fragmentation of the research community • Revisiting the division of functionality is hard • Inherently a “cross-layer” research problem • Benefits from expertise across multiple layers • Can we, as researchers, cross the layer boundaries? • And create tools for decomposing a system, and analyzing the resulting complexity?

Example Research Questions • Traffic management • Today: congestion control (end hosts), routing protocols (routers), and traffic engineering (network operators) • Tomorrow: discovering the right division of labor • Scalable routing • Today: exciting theoretical results in compact routing • Tomorrow: turning those into network protocols • Mobile hosts • Today: network backbone ignores host mobility • Tomorrow: wired-network support for mobile hosts • Adversarial settings • Today: protocols based on trust in the participants • Tomorrow: protocols that are robust to greed and malice

These are Hard Problems • Interdisciplinary research is hard • Theory and systems • Crossing, and revisiting, the layers • But these issues are at the core of networking • We must grapple with them • Not just to “fix the Internet”, but also as scholars • To move networking from a problem domain to an intellectual discipline • To teach our students better • GENI is an enabler, but not a solution

Building Networks like GENI • Programmable virtual networks • A distributed, programmable experimental facility • Shared on a small timescale, carrying real user traffic • Theoretical challenges • Embedding a virtual topology in a shared substrate • Coordinating resource allocation across a federation • Platform for investigating the challenges • VINI: VIrtual Network Infrastructure • http://www.cs.princeton.edu/~jrex/virtual.html • Maybe net virtualization is itself an architecture • No “One Architecture to Rule Them All”… 

GENI: Global Environment for Network Innovations