The Large Scale Curvature of Networks and its Implications for Network Management and Security

Understanding key structural properties of large-scale networks is critical for analyzing and optimizing their performance, improving their reliability and security and defining appropriate engineering and measurement metrics. In this talk we show that these networks may possess a previously unnoticed feature, global curvature, which we argue has a critical impact on core congestion: the load at the core of a network with N nodes scales as O(N2) as compared to O(N1.5) for a flat network. We substantiate this claim through analysis of a collection of IP-layer data networks across the globe as measured and documented by previous researchers. We further show that the observed scaling is intrinsic to the geometry and metric properties of these networks with clear implications for network management and security. We conclude with a preliminary classification of large-scale networks that we believe better describes the structure of complex networks than those currently used within the network research community. This is joint work with Onuttom Narayan, University of California, Santa Cruz.

Speaker Bio: Iraj Saniee heads the Math of Networks and Communications Research at Enabling Computing Technologies Lab at Bell Laboratories, Alcatel-Lucent, Murray Hill, NJ. He received the Ph.D. degree in operations research and control theory and the M.A. and B.A. degrees in mathematics, all from the University of Cambridge. His research interests are in the mathematical modeling, analysis, and optimization of communication systems, with applications to architecture, design tools, and control mechanisms for emerging networks. In the past six years, he has been Principal Investigator in research projects funded by DARPA and AFOSR. Prior to Bell Labs and until 1998, he was a research director in the Information Sciences Lab at Bellcore in Morristown, NJ. He is a member of IEEE, INFORMS and IFIP WG 7.3 in Computer Performance Modeling and Analysis. He is also a past member of AMS, SIAM, and a past Chair of the Telecommunication Section of INFORMS. He currently serves on the Editorial Board of Operations Research, and has served on program committees of numerous IEEE and INFORMS conferences.

Presentation Slides: PDF

Note: Visitors from outside NIST must contact Robin Bickel; (301) 975-3668; at least 24 hours in advance.