FASE invited speaker

Pamela Zave (AT&T Labs, USA)

Title: When the model really matters:  The compositional architecture of the Internet

In 1992 the explosive growth of the World Wide Web began.  In 1993 the last major change was made to the ``classic'' Internet architecture.  Since then the Internet has been adapted to handle a truly impressive list of additional applications and unforeseen challenges, at global scale.  Although the architecture of the Internet has changed completely, the way that experts think and talk about it has not changed.  The result is runaway complexity in networking, and an academic field based on accumulation of detail rather than principles.
This talk introduces a new formal model for networking, based on flexible composition of modular networks.  Each module is a microcosm of networking, with all the basic structures and mechanisms.  The new model provides faithful descriptions of how the Internet works today, as well as principles that support (1) re-use of solution patterns at different scopes and levels of abstraction, (2) interoperation with new designs and evolution toward them, and (3) verification of trustworthy network services.
Technological advances are rapidly making most network hardware programmable.  This has attracted the interest of researchers from the programming-languages and verification communities.  The new model greatly expands the set of network phenomena that can be studied rigorously, formalized, and verified.  In doing so, the new model will provide broader opportunities for formal methods to contribute to the trustworthiness of globally distributed computer systems.

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(This video recording was produced and is kindly provided by the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki)