Project Description

Automated network management has been the holy grail of network management research for decades with the aim of closing the management loop and achieving autonomous networking, i.e., networks capable to autonomously monitor their status, analyze potential problems, make control decisions, and execute corrective actions. There have been several attempts to achieve self-managing networks, including policy-based management, autonomic networking, knowledge-driven networks, and recently self-driving networks. However, practical deployments have largely remained unrealized. Several limiting factors can be attributed to this, including the existence of many stakeholders with conflicting goals, reliance on proprietary hardware and a complex web of interacting protocols, lack of global visibility restricting network-wide optimizations, and the inability to process network telemetry at scale.

The stars are now aligned to realize the vision of autonomous networking thanks to advances in network softwarization, recent breakthroughs in machine learning, and the availability of cloud platforms for large-scale data processing. However, these individual technologies are merely pieces of a bigger puzzle yet to be solved for the successful realization of autonomous networks. A number of challenging issues need to be addressed not only to create the synergy between these different technology domains but also to develop a fundamentally new approach for the orchestration and management of softwarized networks. These include the ability to program the data plane in a protocol-independent manner for adaptive monitoring and control policy enforcement, real-time processing of streaming monitoring data, predictive machine learning for closed-loop network management, orchestration algorithms for cost-effective, resilient, and efficient service provisioning.

Related Publications

• S. R. Chowdhury, R. Boutaba, and J. Francois. LINT: Accuracy-adaptive and Lightweight In-band Network Telemetry. IFIP/IEEE International Symposium on Integrated Network Management (IM). Bordeaux, France, May 17 - 21, 2021. (Paper)
• A. Laraba, J. Francois, S. R. Chowdhury, I. Chrisment, and R. Boutaba. Mitigating TCP Protocol Misuse with Programmable Data Planes. IEEE Transactions on Network and Service Management - Special Issue on Advanced Management of Softwarized Networks. IEEE Press. Vol. 18(1), pp. 760-774, March 2021. (Paper)
• A. Laraba, J. Francois, I. Chrisment, S. R. Chowdhury, and R. Boutaba. Defeating Protocol Abuse with P4: an Application to Explicit Congestion Notification. IFIP Networking 2020 Conference. Paris, France, June 22-26, 2020. (Paper)
• N. Salhab, R. Rahim, R. Langar, and R. Boutaba. Deep Neural Networks approach for Power Head-Room Predictions in 5G Networks and Beyond. IFIP Networking 2020 Conference. Paris, France, June 22-26, 2020. (Paper)
• E. H. Bouzidi, A. Outtagarts, A. Hebbar, R. Langar, and R. Boutaba. Online based learning for predictive end-to-end network slicing in 5G networks. IEEE International Conference on Computer Communications (ICC). Dublin, Ireland, June 7-11, 2020. (Paper)
• I. Akbari, E. Tahoun, M.A. Salahuddin, N. Limam, and R. Boutaba. ATMoS: Autonomous Threat Mitigation in SDN using Reinforcement Learning. IEEE/IFIP Network Operations and Management Symposium (NOMS). Budapest, Hungary, April 20-24, 2020. (Paper)
• N. Salhab, Rana Rahim-Amoud, Rami Langar, and R. Boutaba. Machine Learning based Resource Orchestration for 5G Network Slices. IEEE Global Communications Conference (GLOBECOM). Waikoloa, HI, USA, December 9-13, 2019. (Paper)
• E. Jalalpour, M. Ghaznavi, R. Boutaba, T. Ahmed. TMAS: Traffic Monitoring Analytics System Leveraging Machine Learning. IFIP/IEEE Integrated Network Management Symposium (IM). Washington DC, USA. April 8-12, 2019 (Paper).
• R. Boutaba, M. A. Salahuddin, N. Limam, S. Ayoubi, N. Shahriar, F. Estrada-Solano and O. M. Caicedo. A Comprehensive Survey on Machine Learning for Networking: Evolution, Applications and Research Opportunities. Journal of Internet Services and Applications. Springer. Vol. 9(16), December 2018 (Paper).
• S. Ayoubi, N. Limam, M.A. Salahuddin, N. Shahriar, R. Boutaba., F. Estrada-Solano, O.M. Caicedo. Machine Learning for Cognitive Network Management. IEEE Communications Magazine, Network and Service Management Series. IEEE Press. Vol. 56(1), pp. 158-165, January 2018 (Paper).
• A. Azzouni, R. Boutaba, G. Pujolle. NeuRoute: Predictive Dynamic Routing for Software-Defined Networks. 4th International Workshop on Management of SDN and NFV Systems (ManSDN/NFV). Tokyo, Japan, Nov 26-30, 2017 (Paper.
• M. Ghaznavi, N. Shahriar, S. Kamali, R. Ahmed, R. Boutaba. Distributed Service Function Chaining. IEEE JSAC Special issue on Emerging Technologies in Software-driven Communication. IEEE Press, Vol. 35(11), pp. 2479-2489, November 2017 (Paper).
• R. Mijumbi, S. Hasija, S. Davy, A. Davy, B. Jennings, R. Boutaba. Topology-aware Prediction of Virtual Network Function Resource Requirements. IEEE Transactions on Network and Service Management. Vol. 14(1), pp. 106-120, March 2017 (Paper).
• K. Salah, P. Calyam, R. Boutaba. Analytical Model for Elastic Scaling of Cloud-based Firewalls. IEEE Transactions on Network and Service Management. IEEE Press, Vol. 14(1), pp. 136-146, March 2017 (Paper).
• R. Mijumbi, S. Hasija, S. Davy, A. Davy, B. Jennings, and R. Boutaba. A Connectionist Approach to Dynamic Resource Management for Virtualised Network Functions. IEEE/ACM/IFIP Conference on Network and Service Management (CNSM). Montreal, Quebec, Canada. October 31 - November 04, 2016 (Paper).
• A. R. Roy, S. R. Chowdhury, M. F. Bari, R. Ahmed, and R. Boutaba. Emulating an Infrastructure with EASE. IEEE/ACM/IFIP Conference on Network and Service Management (CNSM) (Mini-conference). Montreal, Quebec, Canada. October 31 - November 04, 2016 (Paper, Slides).
• M.F. Bari, S.R. Chowdhury, R. Ahmed, R. Boutaba, and O.C.M.B. Duarte. Orchestrating Virtualized Network Functions. IEEE Transactions on Network and Service Management. IEEE Press, Vol. 13(4), pp. 725-739, December 2016 (Paper).
• M. F. Bari, S. R. Chowdhury, R. Ahmed, and R. Boutaba. nf.io: A File System Abstraction for NFV Orchestration. IEEE Conference on Network Function Virtualization and Software Defined Networks (NFV-SDN), San Francisco (USA), November 18-21, 2015 (Paper, Slides).
• M. F. Bari, S. R. Chowdhury, R. Ahmed and R. Boutaba. nf.io: A File System Abstraction for NFV Orchestration. ACM SIGCOMM 2015, London (UK), August 17-21, 2015. (Demo) (Extended abstract).
• M. F. Bari, S. R. Chowdhury, R. Ahmed, and R. Boutaba. On Orchestrating Virtual Network Functions. IEEE/ACM/IFIP International Conference on Network and Service Management (CNSM), Barcelona (Spain), November 9-13, 2015 (Paper, Slides).
• M. Ghaznavi, A. Khan, N. Shahriar, K. Alsubhi, R. Ahmed, R. Boutaba. Elastic Virtual Network Function Placement. IEEE International Conference on Cloud Networking (CloudNet). Niagara Falls (Canada), October 5-7, 2015 (Paper, Slides).
• R. Mijumbi, J. Serrat, J.-L. Gorricho, N. Bouten, F. De Turck, R. Boutaba. Network Function Virtualization: State-of-the-art and Research Challenges. IEEE Communications Surveys and Tutorials. IEEE Press, Vol. 18(1), pp. 236-262, January 2016 (Paper).
• A. R. Roy, M. F. Bari, M. F. Zhani, R. Ahmed, and R. Boutaba. DOT: Distributed OpenFlow Testbed. ACM SIGCOMM 2014, Chicago (USA), August 17-22, 2014. (Demo) (Extended abstract).
• M. F. Bari, S. R. Chowdhury, R. Ahmed and R. Boutaba. PolicyCop: An Autonomic QoS Policy Enforcement Framework for Software Defined Networks. IEEE Software Defined Networks for Future Networks and Services (SDN4FNS), Trento (Italy), November 11-13, 2013 (Paper, Slides).
• S. R. Chowdhury, M. F. Bari, R. Ahmed, R. Boutaba. PayLess: A Low Cost Network Monitoring Framework for Software Defined Networks. In IEEE/IFIP Network Operations and Management Symposium (NOMS), Karakow (Poland), May 5-9, 2014 (Paper, Slides).
• A. R. Roy, M. F. Bari, M. F. Zhani, R. Ahmed, and R. Boutaba. Design and Management of DOT: A Distributed OpenFlow Testbed. In IEEE/IFIP Network Operations and Management Symposium (NOMS), Karakow (Poland), May 5-9, 2014 (Paper, Slides).
• MF. Bari, A. R. Roy, S. R. Chowdhury, Q. Zhang, M. F. Zhani, R. Ahmed and R. Boutaba. Dynamic Controller Provisioning in Software Defined Networks. In IEEE/ACM/IFIP International Conference on Network and Service Management (CNSM), Zurich, Switzerland, October 14-18, 2013 (Paper, Slides).

Sponsors and Partners