Computer Systems Colloquium
"Safetynet: A language based approach to programmable network"
3.30 pm, Thursday 24 February
Room 2511, James Clerk Maxwell Building
Abstract
A programmable network is one in which the network elements can be
directly programmed by applications, allowing processing of packets
and data to happen within the network to alleviate the effects of
latency, low bandwidth or intermittent connectivity such as
experienced by mobile users. But these network elements are resources
shared by all users of the network, so failures affect all users. For
programmable networks to be viable, the integrity of the network must
be protected from both from accidental and malicious damage.
In this talk, I will describe how we designed the SafetyNet
programming environment and its current status. We started from a set
of policies about what programs could or could not do on a network
node, and designed the type system of our programming language to
instantiate these policies. By basing the language on a well-typed
object-oriented mutant of the $\Pi$-calculus, we are able to prove
that any SafetyNet programs will abide by our safety policies. We now
have a compiler, run-time system and network simulator upon which we
are developing novel applications.
This is joint work with Alan Jeffrey, now of DePaul University, Illinois.
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