Keynote: Hitting the Nail on the Head: Interdisciplinary Research in Computer Networking -- Prof. Jennifer Rexford

Jennifer Rexford

2016 ACM Athena Lecturer Award Winner

• The internet is one of the most influential inventions.
• However, we cannot do it alone.
• Hammers (techniques) and Nails (problems).

• Project 1: Protocols as Distributed Optimizers
• Traditional traffic management has architectural limitations -- slow adaption
• TCP
• Forward engineering of traffic management
• Decompose to generate a distributed solution
• Lesson: 
• Start with a well-stated problem, then decompose into a distributed solution
• Research as decomposition
• People and timing

• Project 2: Composition of Network Policies
• Simple, open data-plane API -- openflow
• Moduler controller applications -- each module partially specifies the handling of the traffic
• Abstract openflow -- policy as a function
• Lesson: 
• Abstraction and decomposition; 
• Embedded people (and code)

• Project3: Traffic monitoring in the data plane
• Traffic analysis in the data plane
• Streaming algorithms
• A great opportunity
• Example: heavy-hitter detection
• Approximating and approximation
• Lesson: 
• Getting concrete
• Computational model
• Example problem
• Strawman solution
• Iteratively designing
• Striving for general understanding

Should we all do interdisciplinary research?

• Interdisciplinary fun
• Bigger impact & social fun
• Managing risks
• One vs many hammers
• Steep learning curve
• Learn both the hammer and the nail
• Learning the culture of both research fields
• Join an emerging community
• Credit for the work
• Healthy interdisciplinary collaborations

Q: We have various network devices, what is the network constrained by now? What is the next problem in the network?

A: There are still a lot of things to understand. For example, which things should be where.