Large Scale Network (LSN) design
requires combination of latest practical
and theoretical knowledge. Example of Large Scale Network would include
Enterprize Networks (Corporate Intranet, Point-of-Sale management
Network, etc.), Commercial/Operators Networks (ISP, FTTH, IP
Telephony/TV Service Network, Mobile Phone Operators Backbone, Wi-Max
Operator's Network, etc.), Public Networks (School Net, Research and
Education Networks, E-Government Networks, Health Networks,
etc.). Also now apprearing very large scale Overlay Networks
(such as CDN, P2P service delivery, soci-techno networks).
A Large Scale Network must be reliable, secure, and manageable. It must
be optimally provisioned. It must also be extensible to keep up with
the growth of technology and owner's requirements. Network design
requires practical understanding of latest in areas such as
40-100 GB links, Fiber to the Curb/Home, Wireless Mesh to protocol in
Network Security, Voice over IP (VoIP), IPv6, Virtual Private Networks
(VPNs), Identity Services, etc. It also requires knwledge about network
engineering optimization techniques. Though various mathematical
analytical means a good design can be achieved to provide right
reliability, quality of service and security. Also, over last 4-5
years, the complex network analysis is making available additional
analytical techniques to designers on tackling very large scale
networks.
Cost
is the overarching factor in the large scale network design.
Designer must know the cost implication of various components of its
design and operation. At the end- the designer must be able to
design the network that meets specified performance goals within the
financial sutainability constraints
of the organization operating/owning the network. Even outsourcing of
large scale netwok using commercial data services
alternatives require stated knowlhow to estimate cost savings
and evaluate bids from competing carriers.
For LSN both the short term and long term cost implication of the
design choices are critical. Non-optimized design and consequent over
provisioning and underprovisioning can have disastorous and painful
implication on financial sustainability. On the contrary a forward
looking balanced design can provide long term strategic advantage.
Courses
Each course has website will pointers to extensive resource collections.
Books
Publications
- Meta-Simulation Design and
Analysis for Large Scale Networks, David W. Bauer Jr., PhD
Thesis, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 2006 (Link)
- Coherence in large-scale
networks: dimension dependent limitations of local feedback. Bamieh, Jovanovic, Mitra &
Patterson, IEEE
Transactions on Automatic Control, 2009. (Abstarct)
- Measurement and Analysis of
Large-Scale Network File System Workloads, Leung, Pasupathy, Goodson and Miller, USENIX 2009 (Paper),
2008.
- Time-stepped Hybrid Simulation
(TSHS) for Large Scale Networks, Y. Guo, W. Gong, D. Towsley, IEEE Infocom'00, 2000. (Paper)
- A large-scale real-time network
simulation study using PRIME, Jason
Liu, Yue Li, and Ying He, 2009
Winter Simulation Conference (WSC'09) to appear. (Paper)
Network Design Tools
Monitoring Tools
last
updated: October 2009