Rudolf Strijkers, Robert Meijer(University of Amsterdam, TNO Informatie- en Communicatietechnologie), Mihai Cristea, Paola Grosso, Cees de Laat (University of Amsterdam)
This poster introduces Interactive Networks; a framework that considers nodes of a programmable network as software objects and utilizes the flexibility of software to create new and application-specific network services. The challenge is to define and structure primary architectural components that enable programming the network as a whole: programming the ant-heap instead of each ant individually. We illustrate the Interactive Networks framework with an implementation where humans become an integral part of the programmable network control system. The implementation gives multiple users simultaneously the ability to construct and manipulate paths with an interactive visualization on a multi-touch table. The implementation supports end-to-end, multicast or paths that contain loops and supports changing path characteristics on the fly. While this illustrates fine-grained manual control, we also show how optimizing feedback loops can be included in the programming model to automate decision-making.
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