EECS Department Colloquium Series
Software-Defined Networks and the Maturing of the Internet 
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Wednesday, December 3, 2014 Nick McKeown
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ABSTRACT:
The genius of the pioneers of the Internet was to keep the network of links and routers - the “plumbing” - dumb and minimal, placing as much of the intelligence as possible in the computers at the edge. Our computers at the edges could be upgraded over time to add new features - such as congestion control and security - without having to change the network. A streamlined network could focus on forwarding packets as fast as possible. A simple network with distributed control allowed for organic, explosive growth in the 1990s, with small businesses popping up everywhere to offer Internet service.
But over time the network became more and more bloated, straying far from the original intent, with thousands of complicated features locked inside closed, vertically integrated routers. Networks became harder to manage, and those who own large networks fell under a stranglehold from their equipment vendors. Innovation was slow, equipment was unreliable and profit margins were through the roof. The networking industry of the 2000s turned into the mainframe industry of the 1980s. Along came companies building data centers with thousands of switches and routers, with a pressing need to place the network under their control. Over-priced firewalls and load-balancers were replaced with homegrown software running on servers. Routers and switches were simplified, making them more reliable, lower-cost and lower-power. The entire network was placed under the control of software created using modern software practices. The software defined network (SDN) was born. In turn, SDN made it easier to use the servers, storage and network more efficiently by virtualizing the network.
In this talk I will explain why - despite all the hype - software-defined networks were really just an "inevitable" next stage in the maturation of the Internet. And I'll explain what I think happens next.
BIOGRAPHY:
Nick McKeown has been a Professor of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering at Stanford University since 1995. He started his EECS Ph.D. 25 years ago in Cory Hall with Professors Jean Walrand and Pravin Varaiya. Nick secretly roots for the Bears at Big Games.
For many years Nick's research was on how to make faster switches and routers. He eventually grew tired of the way router vendors were building overly-complex, vertically-integrated, unreliable boxes, and were holding back innovation in networking. And so, together with Martin Casado and Scott Shenker, he co-invented software-defined networking (SDN), with the goal of handing back control to those who own and operate networks, and accelerating the rate of innovation in networks. More recently, his research has focused on how to prove correctness of networks and how to make networks more programmable all the way down to the forwarding chips.
Nick is a member of the US National Academy of Engineering (NAE), a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (UK), Fellow of the IEEE and the ACM. He was awarded the British Computer Society Lovelace Medal, the IEEE Kobayashi Computer and Communications Award and the ACM Sigcomm Lifetime Achievement Award.
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