The Network as a Platform

Modern networks, whether in the home or enterprise, have transformed many aspects of our lives: how we get the news, share music and collaborate with coworkers, to name a few. The ubiquity of networks has expanded the range of what is possible in the home and ushered in an era of higher productivity in enterprises. Despite this growth in technology, tools for managing networks have lagged behind. In the home, return rates for home electronics are notoriously high despite relatively low fault rates. In the enterprise, managing complex networks is tedious and error prone involving the joint configuration and debugging of many different elements. The result is networks which are less user-friendly, less reliable, and less functional than we need them to be.

In this talk I will advocate for a new approach to network management. By providing a platform for third-party developers to build innovative network applications, we can allow software applications to keep up with the growing capabilities of modern network and device hardware. Such platforms can provide more effective ways to manage and secure networks, along with greater functionality for the end user. We present two case studies: HomeOS and ETTM, prototype network software platforms for programming home and enterprise networks.