Internet Architecture Evolution: Found in Translation
Table of Contents
Seminars-1-2025 - This article is part of a series.
Abstract #
The success of the Internet is undeniable, but so are its limitations. Over the past two decades, the research community has responded with clean-slate redesigns, proposing innovative architectures focused on issues like security and information dissemination, among others. Unfortunately, these efforts have had limited impact on the commercial Internet, if any. The reason is that the Internet architecture is deeply entrenched, making a complete replacement elusive.
In this talk, I will argue that a successful approach to evolving the Internet requires three key ingredients. It should (1) be backwards compatible with the current Internet, (2) evolve from the existing architecture, and (3) allow new architectures to reach their full potential. Recently, the community introduced an overlay-based approach for an Extensible Internet. I believe this is a clear step in the right direction: it is backwards-compatible, does not require replacing the current Internet infrastructure, and is deployable today. However, I contend that this approach is not fully adequate as it lacks the third requirement, which I deem crucial for new architectures to gain a foothold and grow. As an alternative, in the talk I will advocate for a translation-based approach and present my rationale on how it may enable effective Internet evolution by meeting the three requirements above. This presentation will expand on my talk at HotNets this past November.
Bio #
Fernando Ramos is an Associate Professor at Instituto Superior Técnico, University of Lisbon, where he coordinates the Master’s Programme in Telecommunications and Informatics Engineering. He is also a senior researcher at INESC-ID, leading the Distributed, Parallel, and Secure Systems Scientific Area. He earned his PhD from the University of Cambridge and his MSc from Queen Mary University of London. Fernando is the coordinator of the EU Horizon project ACES and the principal investigator of the FCT-funded Myriarch project. In addition, he co-chairs the P4 Education Working Group, which promotes the use of P4 in educational contexts. His research interests span software-defined networking and network programmability, network security, and the application of AI/ML to network control.
Contact #
E-mail: fvramos@tecnico.ulisboa.pt
Resources and Materials #
Save the date: March, 27th, 2025.