Wednesday Breakout Session (Group 7)

• Members

– Terry Davis (University of Arkansas)

– Tim Husted (Albany State University)

– Laurie Burns (Internet 2)

– Ken Payne (University of Georgia)

– David Matthews-Morgan (University of Georgia)

– The GA Tech guys

Current practices - Describe the current state of end-to-end practices

How do you know that the network is working correctly?

• No user complaints

• (User complaints = working as usual :)

• No monitoring system alarms

How do you tell where the problem is for an application?

• HelpDesk collects problem details (know what to ask)

• Technician

– identifies network elements & pathways

– systematically narrows scope of problem (divide & conquer) until faulty component identified

What are the three most effective tools you use now?

• ICMP tools (ping/traceroute)

• Protocol analyzers (Sniffer/EtherPeek)

• Time-series graphs (Cricket/MRTG)

What existing resources (websites, databases, etc.) do you use and find helpful?

• Home-grown databases of network info (with Web front-ends)

• Vendor-specific technical sites

– Microsoft

– Cisco

– Novell

• Collaborative network analysis tool sites (e.g., www.caida.org)

• Technical e-mail lists (human experts)

Looking Toward the Future - Describe what you need to make end-to-end work

What is your greatest need to provide end-to-end performance?

• Streaming media

• Multicast applications

• Bioinformatics

• Geographical information systems

• Peer-to-peer applications (whether we want them or not)

What should be the communications flow to resolve an end-to-end problem

• Consistent point of contact for problem reporting (HelpDesk)

• Collect sufficient info to characterize problem

• Notify relevant problem solvers until resolved

What information do you need from the various parts of the path?

• Can the end-to-end devices communicate through the path?

• Can parts of the path provide and guarantee network characteristics needed for satisfactory application performance?

• Do the end-to-end devices have sufficient internal resources to adequately exchange information (hardware, software, application design, etc.)?

What is the right balance between privacy (or security?) and providing information to operate the

network?

• Network information provided on a need-to-know basis

• Problem solvers need access to more specific info

• End users need easy-to-understand state of the network info

What features and functions would inspire you to use and contribute to the knowledgebase?

• Easy-to-use and consistent knowledge input mechanism

• Natural language queries that return high hit rates (tall order!)