NSF Award
2312539
Networks connect us to our online services – our banks, our colleagues and friends, our work, our school, our travel plans, our government resources, and so much more. As such, networks are critical infrastructure, and any downtime is not only costly, but possibly dangerous. In order to function properly, networks need to be configured to route information between computers. Unfortunately, these configurations are large and complicated, and it is easy to make mistakes while maintaining them. The goal of this project is to develop new algorithms and tools to identify mistakes in network configurations before they cause serious harm. More specifically, the project will explore ways to divide complex modern networks into smaller components (i.e., modules) for separate but accurate analysis. Doing so will allow sophisticated analysis techniques to scale to the point they may be applied to the world’s largest and most important networks. <br/><br/>This project will advance the theory and practice of modular verification of traditional network control planes. Modular reasoning can help network operators abstract away unnecessary details, localize network bugs, confirm the validity of configuration updates, and scale verification to arbitrarily-large networks. The specific goals are: (1) to develop new theoretical foundations, including models of network behavior, useful abstractions, and expressive specification languages that support sound and efficient modular reasoning; (2) to design and implement algorithmic methods for verification and synthesis of modular network interfaces; and (3) to build a system for reliable modular network management, with support for migration from traditional infrastructure.<br/><br/>Reliable networks are an essential component of the nation’s critical infrastructure. If successful, the ideas and products produced by this project will help keep that infrastructure running and avoid outages resulting from bugs due to updates in network configurations. To increase access to education in computer science, the project will follow Princeton’s verified Departmental Broadening Participation in Computing plan. In particular, the project will support undergraduate research opportunities. To improve educational outcomes, the project will develop shared interdisciplinary educational materials on formal methods to be deployed in classes at the undergraduate and graduate levels.<br/><br/>Results produced by the project including open source code, data, and reports will be accessible via https://www.cs.princeton.edu/~dpw/grants/nsf-modular-networks.html. These products will be maintained for at least a decade.<br/><br/>This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
