Career: Toward a QoS Provision Architecture in Noncooperative Networks: Theory and Implementation.

随着承载从电子邮件到海量数据再到语音和视频等大量信息的高速局域网和广域网络的部署不断增加，为不同的应用程序群提供足够的服务质量(Qos)已成为一个重要问题。当前的技术--一些源于内在的限制--使得在不诉诸过度供应的情况下提供差异化的服务质量和保证变得困难，而过度供应使得这些服务被禁止。考虑到人们期望将互联网作为经济、教育、娱乐和其他社会功能的日常、随意但永远不可或缺的组件使用，需要一种新的体系结构来将构成当今尽力带宽的同质簇转换为具有分级的服务质量属性的分层服务，该服务更好地匹配应用、多媒体或其他的概要的不同的服务质量需求。这种冒险成功的关键在于，用户和网络都不需要参与复杂的计算，从而使解决方案完全不可行，或者使其与过度配置一样昂贵。该建议描述了一种基于微观经济学和非合作博弈论的思想，适用于尽力而为环境的服务质量提供体系结构。我们构建了一个非合作的服务质量提供模型，其中假设用户是自私的，分组在交换机上被路由，在那里-作为他们所确定的优先级的函数-提供区分服务。服务质量是一种诱导现象，是由底层网络底层中介的自私应用之间的交互作用而实现的。本方法与以前的工作有三个显著的不同-第一，它是专门为模拟服务质量提供而制定的最全面的非合作资源分配模型之一；第二，该方法描述了一种适合于多交换机广域网络环境的特定网络体系结构；第三，它兼顾了理论和实践两个方面，强调了可实现性。PI不仅从博弈论的角度研究了非合作的Qos提供模型，显示了将纳什均衡与Pareto和系统最优联系起来的丰富结构的存在，他还研究了当模型扩展到结合了可能存在冲突需求的多维Qos向量时促进充分服务的问题，系统变化对所呈现的Qos的影响，使用可编程通用处理器共享开关将网络资源自适应地重定位到热点，以及在多交换机系统中出现的无数分布式控制问题。这份提案描述了PI以前的研究-单交换机和多交换机-并概述了未来研究的计划，强调对理论和实践问题的综合方法，并强烈地着眼于可行的实施。该提案的双重目标是描述普渡大学计算机科学系网络课程和教育的发展战略。主要目标有三个。首先，扩展和重组现有的网络课程，为学生提供更多的结构、深度和指导。这是通过在研究生课程中增加两门新的网络课程来实现的，即网络高级主题(已实施)和实验网络。在本科课程中，PI最近引入了一门新的网络课程，还有几门课程正在规划阶段。第二，加强研究生研究计划的力量，将最先进的网络技术纳入课程(PI已经为ATM交换机采购了设备资金，将纳入98秋季网络课程)，并设计了一门新的实验网络课程，让学生积极参与网络游戏，学习非合作和合作协议及其行为后果。最后，随着支持网络技术的发展和继续教育需求的增长，远程学习迅速成为现实，PI希望开发一门本科生级别的网络课程，可以在网络上有效地教授。作为普渡大学CEE计划的一部分，PI的研究生网络课程将在1998年秋季学期向校外网站进行电视转播，这些网站将收到现场视频/音频馈送和提问的语音通道，从而促进这一点。

With the increased deployment of high-speed local- and wide-area networks carrying a multitude of information from email to bulk data to voice and video, provisioning adequate quality of service (QoS) to the diverse application base has become an important problem. Current techniques---some stemming from intrinsic limitations---make it difficult to provide differentiated QoS and guarantees without resorting to over-provisioning which renders these services prohibitive.Given the expected use of the Internet as an everyday, casual, yet evermore indispensable component of economic, educational, entertainment, and other societal functions by the population at large, a new architecture is needed to transform the homogeneous clump that constitutes today's best-effort bandwidth into stratified services with graded QoS properties that better matches the diverse QoS needs of a compendium of applications, multimedia or otherwise. Crucial to the success of this venture is that neither the user nor the network be required to engage in complex computations which would thence make the solution outright infeasible or render it equally as expensive as over-provisioning.This proposal describes a QoS provision architecture suited for best-effort environments based on ideas from microeconomics and noncooperative game theory. We construct a noncooperative QoS provision model where users are assumed to be selfish, and packets are routed over switches where---as a function of their enscribed priority---differentiated service is delivered. Quality of service is an induced phenomenon, achieved as a result of interaction between selfish applications mediated by the underlying networksubstrate.The present approach differs from previous works in three significant ways---one, it is one of the most comprehensive noncooperative resource allocation models specifically formulated to model QoS provision, two, the approach describes a specific network architecture suited to many-switch wide area network environments, and three, it addresses both theoretical and practical aspects, with an emphasis on realizability. Not only does the PI study the noncooperative QoS provision modelfrom a game-theoreticperspective showing the existence of a rich structure relating Nash equilibria to Pareto and system optima, he also investigate the problem of facilitating adequate services when the model is extended to incorporatemulti-dimensional QoS vectors with possibly conflicting requirements, the effect of system variance on QoS rendered, the adaptive relocation of network resources to hot spots using programmable general processor sharing switches, and the myriad of distributed control problems arising in many-switch systems.This proposal describes the PI's previous research---both single-switch and many-switch---and outlines a program for future research that emphasizes an integrated approach to theoretical and practical issues with a strong view toward feasible implementations.The dual goal of this proposal is to describe a strategy for developing the networking curriculum and education in the Computer Sciences Department at Purdue University. The main goals are threefold. First, expand and reorganize the existing networking curriculum to impart more structure, depth, and guidance to the student. This is achieved by enhancing the graduate program with two new networking courses, Advanced Topics in Networking (already implemented) and Experimental Networks. In the undergraduate curriculum, a new networking course was recently introduced by the PI with several more in the planning stage. Second, enhance the strength of the graduate research program by incorporating state-of-the-art networking technology into the curriculum (the PI has procured equipment funding for ATM switches which will be incorporated into the fall 98 networking curriculum) and devising a new course in Experimental Networksinvolving active student participation as players in network games where noncooperative and cooperative protocols and their behavioral consequences are studied. Finally, with distance learning fast becoming a reality spurned by the growth in enabling networking technology and continuing education demand, the PI hopes to develop an undergraduate-level networking course that can be effectively taught over the Web. This will be facilitated by the PI's graduate networking course being televised in the fall 1998 semester as part of Purdue's CEE program to off-campus sites who will receive live video/audio feed and a voice channel for questioning.