Autonomic networking aims to create self-managing networks — self-configuring, self-protecting, self-healing, and self-optimizing — to overcome the problem of increasing network scale and complexity.
It has been touted by Internet dignitaries, including Professor Brian Carpenter, as an evolution of current practices such as network orchestration, which can remove much of the “drudgery out of network operations.”
The problem that autonomic networking intends to solve is a combination of scale and complexity, as well as “response time for any sort of resource optimization problem where humans are just too slow to twiddle the knobs,” explains Brian, who will present on his recent research in autonomic network management at the Asia Pacific Advanced Network (APAN 46) meeting in Auckland, New Zealand, from 5 to 9 August.
Brian says it is hoped that the move towards autonomic networks will be gradual, with “no step change, just progressive introduction of autonomic mechanisms that are driven by higher level policy than existing systems.”
Having played a key role in developing and overseeing a host of Internet standards and technology over the past 30 years, including stints as Chair of the IETF, the Internet Architecture Board, and the Internet Society, Brian notes that challenges to the nature of the Internet extend beyond scale and complexity, citing “political interference, machine learning and its helpfulness for mass surveillance, and really cheap edge devices by the billion (also known as IoT)” as issues that will shape the Internet, now and in years to come.
That said, he remains optimistic about the Internet’s ability to continue acting as a platform for innovation. “When it ossifies, we’re in trouble.”
About APAN 46
APAN 46 will be the first APAN meeting held in the southern hemisphere since 2010. It will provide attendees from across the world of research and education networking the chance to meet new people and identify new challenges and opportunities for collaboration.
In addition to Professor Carpenter’s presentation at the Research Workshop, attendees will hear from a host of presenters across five tracks, including keynote presentations from Internet Hall of Famer, Professor Shigeki Goto, and David Lassner, former CIO and now President of the University of Hawai’i.
For more information on the conference, and to register, check out the APAN 46 website.
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