NeTS: Small: Universal Packet Scheduling

维护和发展现代互联网的基础设施至关重要。这一基础设施中的一个基本问题是“分组调度”问题，它决定了数据在构成互联网基础设施的交换机和链路上传输的顺序。因此，分组调度是一个丰富的探索研究课题：随着网络的发展，以支持新的应用和技术，所以这样做的要求放在分组路由器，因此研究人员和从业者都继续开发新的路由器，以满足当前的需求。到目前为止，隐含的假设是新的调度目标需要新的调度算法。该项目中正在进行的研究提出了另一种观点：它不是随着新需求的出现而设计新的调度算法，而是询问是否存在可以调整的单一调度算法（即，通过配置改变）以匹配任何调度算法的性能。 因此，该项目解决了一个看似简单的问题：是否存在通用分组调度（UPS）算法？这些结果将阐明任何分组调度算法的基本限制，并影响网络交换机硬件的发展。通用或接近通用的分组调度器的存在可以降低网络基础设施发展的障碍，从而有助于实现更广泛的目标，即确保互联网继续作为国家的变革性通信服务。研究结果将纳入本科生和研究生网络课程的课程。

It is of vital importance that we maintain and evolve the infrastructure that underlies the modern Internet. A fundamental question within this infrastructure is that of `packet scheduling' which determines the order in which data is transmitted across the switches and links that form the Internet's infrastructure. Packet scheduling is thus a richly explored research topic: as networks evolve to support new applications and technologies, so do the requirements placed on packet schedulers, hence researchers and practitioners alike have continued to develop new schedulers to suit current needs. The implicit assumption to date has been that new scheduling goals necessitate new scheduling algorithms. The research being undertaken in this project posits an alternate viewpoint: rather than design new scheduling algorithms as new needs emerge, it asks whether there exists a single scheduling algorithm that can be tuned (i.e., through configuration changes) to match the performance of any scheduling algorithm. Thus the project addresses a seemingly simple question: Is there a universal packet scheduling (UPS) algorithm? The results will clarify the fundamental limits of any packet scheduling algorithm as well as influence the development of network switch hardware. The existence of a universal or near-universal packet scheduler could lower the barrier to evolving network infrastructure and hence contribute to the broader goal of ensuring that the Internet continues to serve as a transformative communication service for the nation. The results of the research will be incorporated into the curriculum for networking courses at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.