2004 Business Network Fellow
Dr. Hong Li, Intel Corporation
The Santa Fe Institute is pleased to announce that Dr. Hong Li, Senior Researcher, Intel Corporation has been selected as the recipient of the 2004-2005 SFI Business Network Fellowship.
Hong Li is currently a senior researcher with Intel IT Research, responsible for research in "trustworthy and survivable systems." Since joining Intel in 1999, Hong has led or been actively involved in the development of IT security architectures and R&D projects in areas such as authentication and authorization, compliance management, trusted platform, and policy-based network security. She holds a Ph.D. degree from Penn State University, and a B.S. degree from Xi'an Jiaotong University in China, both in electrical engineering.
Her Fellowship will cover a two-year period of time in which she will engage in collaborations with members of the SFI research community in support of her project, Automated Network Management in Large Scale Networks, which investigates the roles and the dynamics of automation intelligence in an automated network management system for large-scale networks. The objective of this research project is to explore the use of automation intelligence to meet some of the challenges in network management, and to identify future breakthrough research in global-scale network and security management.
Automated Network Management in Large-Scale Networks
Abstract
This project will investigate the roles and the dynamics of automation intelligence in an automated network management system for large scale networks. As networks continue to grow in size and complexity, several challenges will become prominent in the traditional FACAPS (Fault, Configuration, Accounting, Performance, and Security) management model.
Introduction
The objectives of this research project are:
To explore the use of automation intelligence to meet the challenges in data correlation, provisioning, and environmental changes in large scale networks.
To explore the development of algorithms, data models, and potential standards to facilitate automation intelligence.
To identify future breakthrough research in global-scale networks and security management.
To host a PlanetLab node at Santa Fe Institute for future planet-scale research activities.
The Problem
As networks continue to grow in size and complexity, there will be several prominent challenges to the traditional FCAPS (Fault, Configuration, Accounting, Performance, and Security) management model. This is because heterogeneous multi-vendor, multi-protocol network technologies will continue to coexist in enterprise environments, with such heterogeneity human directives can only be given at a very high level of abstraction of business policies, while the underlying network management system must take care of the interpretation of these high-level directives to realizable network configurations and oversee their enforcement. In addition, an effective network management system must provide seamless integration via common service interfaces, and hide underlying technological heterogeneity from network administrators. Furthermore, with continued growth in size and complexity, as well as the ever growing and changing security threats, future network managements must be adaptive and capable of self-regulating, self-governing, and self-healing, in order to reduce operational costs and increase survivability.
In the traditional network management systems based on the FCAPS management model, management and control functions are performed by separate subsystems, and in most cases these subsystems are made up of different products from different vendors. These have made the operation of each individual function very inefficient and, in many cases, ineffective. To exacerbate the situation, operational personnel, management procedures, and control function procedures are further separated by skill-set and administration responsibilities. These lead automation or system control and manageability of an already increasing complex environment to what is referred as "runaway TCO."
Research Activities
The main activities of the proposed collaborative research include:
Research (survey and environmental scan) of background, technologies, and gaps, to gain a clear understanding of the current network management "lay of the land," including industry and academic progress and technology/standard development.
Designing a new architecture for an automated network management system that includes components for automation intelligence to meet the challenges in data correlation, provisioning, and environmental changes in large-scale heterogeneous networks.
Designing specific enterprise use-case scenarios to test the automated network management system. Install this system on an existing test bed and perform a proof of concept trial.
Relation to SFI Program
This project is focused on adaptive and self-adjusting networks, which are closely related to the robust systems program, the Business Network's adaptive and resilient computing security project, and to complex adaptive systems.
Contact Information
Dr. Hong Li, Senior Researcher, Intel Corporation
1900 Prairie City Road, FM1-56, Folsom, CA 95630
(916) 356-4066, hong.c.li@intel.com