CAREER: Foundations of Network Design: Real-World Networks, Special Topologies, and Game Theory

互联网最近经历了巨大的增长，这主要得益于用户生成的视频、电视和电影点播服务、点对点文件共享、社交网络和智能手机的迅速普及。这些新的应用程序组合和由此产生的网络流量特征为从事网络各个方面工作的从业者提出了许多研究挑战，包括构建、路由和分阶段部署。因此，“网络设计”或更普遍的“网络”及其许多变体，是计算机科学中最活跃的研究领域之一。网络的理论建模对于理解计算机网络和通信网络起着至关重要的作用。这类理论模型的例子将在本项目中进一步讨论，包括在光纤网络、内容分发网络（cdn）、虚拟专用网（vpn）、蜂窝网络和社交网络中的成本和效率优化应用。首席研究员将在近似和随机算法、固定参数算法、算法博弈论和他自己的二维理论中发明和使用各种技术，以优化这些战略网络的成本和性能。作为更广泛的影响，PI寻求利用他的合作者网络将这些理论发展应用于实际算法和机制的设计，将它们部署在现实世界的设置中，并进行实验来表征和解释它们的行为和性能。PI相信，在这个项目中设计的各种算法将在实际网络中使用，从而在实践中实现更快的网络和更便宜的互联网接入。这是一个特别重要的目标，因为目前美国的互联网不像其他几个发达国家甚至发展中国家那样快速或便宜。在网络设计基础中，大量有吸引力的开放问题一方面提供了具有挑战性的研究课题，另一方面提供了直观和易于理解的问题，以激励学生进入计算机科学、数学和经济学的研究领域。这个项目的教育主旨是让本科生和研究生积极参与网络设计基础的学习和研究。

The Internet has undergone tremendous growth recently, fueled by the emergence of user-generated video, TV- and movie-on-demand services, peer-to-peer file sharing, social networking, and rapid proliferation of smart phones. These new application mixes and the resulting characteristics of network traffic have raised numerous research challenges for practitioners working on various aspects of networks including construction, routing, and staged deployment. As a result, "network design" or more generally "networking," with its many variants, is one of the most active research areas in computer science.Theoretical modeling of networks plays a vital role in understanding computer and communication networks. Examples of such theoretical models that will be addressed further in this project are cost and efficiency optimizations with applications in Fiber Optic Networks, Content Distribution Networks (CDNs), Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), Cellular Networks, and Social Networks. The Principal Investigator will invent and use a variety of techniques in approximation and randomized algorithms, fixed parameter algorithms, algorithmic game theory, and his own Bidimensionality theory, to optimize cost and performance of these strategic networks.As a broader impact, the PI seeks to leverage his network of collaborators to apply these theoretical developments to the design of practical algorithms and mechanisms, to deploy them in real-world settings, and to perform experiments to characterize and explain their behavior and performance. The PI believes that variations of the algorithms designed in this project will be used in real networks, enabling faster networks and cheaper Internet access in practice. This is an especially important goal since the Internet in the U.S. is currently not as fast or cheap as in several other developed or even developing countries.The wealth of attractive open problems in foundations of network design provide, at one extreme, challenging research topics, and at the other extreme, intuitive and accessible problems to inspire students to enter research in computer science, mathematics, and economics. The educational thrust of this project is to actively engage undergraduate and graduate students in study of and research into network design foundations.