IP Dogma and Cognitive Networks at the Stanford Networking Research Center

I came across a scheduled talk at Stanford Networking Research Center this week on "Cognitive Networks: Implementing Alternate Network Management & Routing with Software Programmable Intelligent Networks" by Shannon Lake, CEO of Omivergent. Unfortunately, I had another seminar to attend at exactly the same time (as usual), but I was curous about this talk and Mr. Lake's assertions on "IP dogma". So I went and asked him why do we need to "change our views on IP networks", layer 3 versus layer 4, and the impact of jitter. He most kindly replied.

SL: "Wow, where do I start. There are quite a few things that we, as an industry, believe are taboo. One of the big issues with IP has to do with business model and the business models available in an IP based network. I am going to be focusing on the realities of IP such as what it means to be connectionless and stateless, with decentralized control logic. The economic implications are staggering not to mention put all signaling in-band and you have one big insecure, economic mess."

LGJ: "Do you deal with layer 4 at all in your analysis, or do you keep discussion at layer 3?"

SL: "On Layer 4… networks act differently layer 3 and below than layer 4 and above. Connectionless and connection-oriented mean different things in these two realms. I fundamentally believe that there are 3 planes – a transport plane, switching plane, and a management plane. The network can be abstracted into these 3 planes and then managed based on connection-oriented and connectionless transport (plane) operation. Fundamentally, I believe that rather than overlaying control, we must underlay control. (This topic requires quite a bit more discussion and it is not this simple, but it is a different way to look at networks). This yield much more determinism in networks along with the availability of new economic models. To answer the question, I will focus mostly on layer 3, but I will also get into tying layer 4 into layer 3 functions."

LGJ: "And finally, are aspects of jitter on the network of relevence, given your telco focus?"

SL: "Issues on jitter… we go way beyond Telco and jitter... some of the network modeling have been done for wireless ad-hoc infrastructure and yielded significant reductions in overhead. As for jitter we use a classification called HoS or Heuristics of Service to categorize a circuit, flow, user, event, etc. by jitter, delay, latency, cost, location, carrier, security level, etc."

LGJ: "Anything else to add?"

SL: "Wow, pointers… I have taken on discussing some of these issues online. We have many issues with performance, and security along with the top 3 layers of the models Layers 8, 9, and 10; the religious, economics, and religious layers. For instance, you cannot secure a flow if the header information contains all the information you need to know who is sending the header and who is receiving it. This alone opens up a network for interception, replay, DDoS, masquerading, man-in-the middle attacks and the list goes on... I have countless example of ways in which we as an industry turn a blind eye because we fundamentally believe that the IP network is the cure-all solution. Too bad you will miss the presentation."

Well, I wish I could have made it, but for me and everyone else who couldn't here is a pdf of Mr. Lake's presentation at SNRC. I hope you all enjoy it. And thank you Mr. Lake for your time.