A key element in the successful development and deployment of new Internet technologies is the ability to test and evaluate new services, systems, protocols and configurations for correctness, robustness, performance and security in a realistic and efficient fashion. Despite some drawbacks, simulation techniques offer a compelling option in terms of scalability, repeatability, configuration flexibility, and the ability to emulate key characteristics of live network settings. In this talk, I will discuss three related research projects in which I have been involved over the past few years to develop simulation and prototyping tools with the goals of enabling accurate and realistic testing and evaluation of diverse Internet systems, protocols and configurations at scale.

Bio

Joel Sommers is an Associate Professor of Computer Science at Colgate University in Hamilton, NY, USA. He received the Ph.D. degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2007 and, prior to that, worked in industry for a few years for companies that no longer exist. His research interests are in network measurement and traffic analysis, designing systems for performing repeatable and realistic experiments for both networking researchers and educators, and software-defined networking.