Just in. Our paper “Virtual Network Embedding with Coordinated Node and Link Mapping”, which presents D-ViNE and R-ViNE algorithms, has been accepted at INFOCOM’2009. Apparently, I have overtaken myself and will be presenting my first paper in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil next April. :D
Here goes the abstract:
Recently network virtualization has been proposed as a promising way to overcome the current ossification of the Internet by allowing multiple heterogeneous virtual networks (VNs) to coexist on a shared infrastructure. A major challenge in this respect is the VN embedding problem that deals with efficient mapping of virtual nodes and virtual links onto the substrate network resources. Since this problem is known to be NP-hard, previous research has focused on designing heuristic-based algorithms which have clear separation between the node and link mapping phases.
This paper proposes VN embedding algorithms with better coordination between the two phases. We formulate the VN embedding problem as a mixed integer program through substrate network augmentation. We then relax the integer constraints to obtain a linear program, and devise two VN embedding algorithms D-ViNE and R-ViNE using deterministic and randomized rounding techniques, respectively. Simulation experiments show that the proposed algorithms increase the acceptance ratio and the revenue while decreasing the cost incurred by the substrate network in the long run.
You can access a copy of the paper in the publications page along with my other works.
Some stats now: This year Infocom received 1435 papers (after post-submission withdrawals) of which 282 papers were accepted after a thorough review process. Hence the acceptance ratio would be 19.65%.
List of papers accepted into the main conference is available here.
Even though I am a bit late to join the bandwagon, I’ve finally upgraded to WordPress 2.7. Up until now it feels awesome even though my theme does not support many cool 2.7 features (e.g., comment threading, pagination etc.).
I just found this awesome post by Ozh on the evolution of WordPress, which shows the change in the interface starting from 0.7.1 to WordPress 2.7. It’s amazing to see how far WordPress has gone in just 5 years !!!
Yes, you have read the title right. :D Hopefully, my first big conference is going to be CoNEXT’08 instead of IM’09, where I will be presenting a paper. This has come as a pleasant surprise !!! While I tried to make my case to the award committee as strongly as possible, the probability of really winning one is always very low due to the presence of a lot of applicants in such large conferences.
I would like to thank the award committee to give me the opportunity and the sponsors of the conference (Silver supporter Microsoft Research, Bronze supporters CISCO, Thomson, Nokia, CONTENT NoE and Patron IBM Corp.) for making it possible.
Aside from the conference, I am also excited about my first trip to Europe. I will try to cover some more cities apart from Madrid, since a schengen visa allows free movement between a whole bunch of countries.
Our paper “iMark: An Identity Management Framework for Network Virtualization Environment” has been accepted at IM’2009. Hopefully, I will be presenting my first paper at a major conference in New York next June :-D . The abstract of the paper is given below:
In recent years, network virtualization has been propounded as an open and flexible future internetworking paradigm that allows multiple virtual networks (VNs) to coexist on a shared physical substrate. Each VN in a network virtualization environment (NVE) is free to implement its own naming, addressing, routing, and transport mechanisms. While such flexibility allows fast and easy deployment of diversified applications and services, ensuring end-to-end communication and universal connectivity poses a daunting challenge.
This paper advocates that effective and efficient management of heterogeneous identifier spaces is the key to solving the problem of end-to-end connectivity in an NVE. We propose iMark, an identity management framework based on a global identity space, which enables end hosts to communicate with each other within and outside of their own networks through a set of controllers, adapters, and well-placed mappings without sacrificing the autonomy of the concerned VNs. We describe the procedures that manipulate these mappings between different identifier spaces and provide performance evaluation of the proposed framework.
If you are interested, head to my publications page to get the full paper.
The acceptance rate of IM’2009 is approximately 32%.
Update: This technical report has been superseded by an updated version published in the Computer Networks journal [LINK].
Finally, our survey on network virtualization is available as a technical report. If the abstract seems interesting (given below), you can download the report from here.
Due to the existence of multiple stakeholders with conflicting goals and policies, alterations to the existing Internet are now limited to simple incremental updates; deployment of any new, radically different technology is next to impossible. To fend off this ossification once and for all, network virtualization has been propounded as a diversifying attribute of the future inter-networking paradigm. By allowing multiple heterogeneous network architectures to cohabit on a shared physical substrate, network virtualization provides flexibility, promotes diversity, and promises security and increased manageability. In this paper, we present a network virtualization model with a set of quintessential design goals, survey the past and the state-of-the-art of network virtualization, and discuss the future challenges that must be addressed to realize a viable network virtualization model.
Since it is quite long (29 pages), here goes a brief summary. This article
puts network virtualization into a historical perspective,
presents a model network virtualization environment,
surveys existing projects that are directly or indirectly related to network virtualization,
summarizes key directions for future exploration.
We have tried our best it to make it informative and useful for the network virtualization research community. But any comment or critique from you will enrich it for sure. Don’t hesitate to grill or greet me. :-D
You should also check out my two presentations based on this survey: “An Introduction to Network Virtualization” and “Network Virtualization: Present and Future”.
On personal level, I have one chapter for my Master’s thesis. w00t !!!
WordPress 2.6.2 has been released today following the recent alarms on possible dangers due to SQL column truncation and weaknesses of the mt_rand() function, credits to Stefan Esser. Apparently, random numbers generated by mt_rand() are not so random; and theoretically, an attacker can use this exploit to reset another user’s randomly generated password. Stefan Essar is expected to post on the details soon.
Download it here; upgrade instructions can be found here (basic), and here (extended).
WordPress 2.7, a major version, will also appear in next few months.
Wow!!! Google really thinks so :D . I don’t know how much fight I would’ve had to put if the keywords were important, but still not bad. In a time when almost everything on the net is driven by Google, getting to the topmost position for the search result of your first name can also be considered as an achievement; at least as long as you are there :P .
An article posted on the KVM blog confirms that KVM developers have achieved native network I/O performance using PCI passthrough with Intel’s VT-d technology. It means that one of the two bottlenecks (network and disk) in system virtualization is going to be eased soon, if not completely removed, resulting in a faster adoption of system virtualization technologies. A quote from the development mailing list follows:
Ben-Ami Yassour wrote:
In last few tests that we made with PCI-passthrough and VT-d using iperf, we were able to get the same throughput as on native OS with a 1G NIC
After some minor tweaking these patches will be rolled out.
WordPress 2.6, code named Tyner, has been released today, one month before the schedule, and is available for download. A nice intro from Matt discussing the latest features is available in the WordPress development blog.
Here is a brief summary of the features:
Post revisions: Wiki-like tracing of edits
Press this!: Post from anywhere on the Web
Google Gears support
Theme previews
194 bug fixes and many more smaller tweaks
Upgrade instructions can be found here (basic), and here (extended).
I will be upgrading ASAP. I have already upgraded :D