RE: [IMRG] imrg futures

Mark,

Hi, thanks for getting the ball rolling. Here are a few thoughts to give the ball an additional kick. I'm not sure which of these (if any) make sense specifically in a context like IMRG, but these are some measurement-related things I've been thinking or wondering about...

• Education/curriculum: What do we think a measurement-oriented researcher needs to know -- about things like (i) conducting experiments, analyzing data, etc. and (ii) key results from past work in the area of Internet measurement? That is, what would we consider the underlying skills and knowledge that researchers in this space should have? Most folks didn't start out as measurement people, and many of us are computer scientists by training and don't (by default) get much training in conducting experimental work and dealing with data. What do we all wish we had learned before embarking on this kind of work?
• Network support for measurement: What basic functionality for measurement would we like to see in network elements and protocols? Here the emphasis could be on support that is minimal in its overhead and opertionally feasible (e.g., people would turn it on because it doesn't reveal too much sensitive information and/or it is useful for operational purposes such as traffic engineering, troubleshooting network problems, etc.). For example, suppose we wanted to monitor BGP update messages and infer the location and cause of routing changes. What extra information in the messages would help us do this? Is the extra overhead small enough to warrant that change?
• Measurement in support of network operations: Lots of folks use measurement data in running their networks (e.g., traffic matrices to do traffic engineering, packet/flow data to detect anomalies and attacks, routing measurements to track the topology and detect anomalies, etc.). Would it make sense to give these monitoring/management systems real-time, direct control over the packet-handling behavior of the network elements -- elevating measurement to a first-class citizen in driving the functioning of the network? What would it take to make this happen?
  • Jen

-----Original Message-----
From: imrg-bounces@ietf.org [mailto:imrg-bounces@ietf.org] On Behalf Of Mark Allman
Sent: Sunday, March 06, 2005 9:32 PM
To: imrg@irtf.org
Subject: [IMRG] imrg futures  

Hi folks!

IMRG has been pretty quiet lately, with not much percolating off-list either. So, I have started to wonder whether this RG is needed or whether we should consider it done. From my viewpoint this RG was created as an umbrella under which various activities across network measurement could be pursued. And, to an extent that has happened (with workshops and review teams and such). However, I think we need to either come up with a use for this RG or just wrap it up. So, if you have something that you think would benefit from operating under the auspices of the IMRG, please let me know (or, the list).

And, remember that this is an open RG, but the charter explicitly calls out the fact that certain activities can be closed. As long as there is some reporting to the community I would be very happy to have some closed sorts of group working on things because I think it can be conducive to rapid progress. (That doesn't mean I think open activities shouldn't be undertaken.)

Please let me know what you think ...

(Oh, I am on my way to IETF right now, so if you want to chat in person this week and will be around, shoot me an email and we'll work something out.)

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Thanks!

allman
(IMRG chair)

--
Mark Allman -- ICIR -- 
http://www.icir.org/mallman/





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