Panel: Network Abstractions for Continuous Innovation – What do We Need?

Panel moderator: David Oran

Panelists:

Ken Calvert (University of Kentucky)

Jim Kurose (University of Massachusetts Amherst)

Dirk Kutscher (Hong Kong University of Science and Technology)

Lixia Zhang (University of California Los Angeles)

Panel Description

Since the Internet's initial rollout ~40 years ago, not only its global connectivity has brought fundamental changes to society and daily life, but its protocol suite and implementations have also gone through many iterations of changes, with SDN, NFV, and programmability among other changes over the last decade. This panel looks into next decade of network research by asking a set of questions regarding where lies the future direction to enable continued innovations, including, but not limited to, the following:

• How should the defining characteristics of a network protocol evolve in the era of increasing automation in the construction of systems and the focus on programming/computing? Should, or should not, communication remain as a fundamental construct?
• What should be the abstraction(s) for future network service?
• Are distributed protocols something in the past, or still needed in the future? And,
• Network education in 2040: What will we teach?