Software-Defined Networking (SDN) has all the signs of a fad: massive hype in the trade rags, an increasing number of academic papers, and widespread confusion about what SDN really means (Isn’t it just OpenFlow? Isn’t it all about centralization? Isn’t it all just hot air?). This talk will try to dispel some of this confusion by discussing how SDN arises from a few natural abstractions for the network control plane. The talk will end with some speculations about the broader implications of SDN.
Speaker Biography
Scott Shenker spent his academic youth studying theoretical physics but soon gave up chaos theory for computer science . Continuing to display a remarkably short attention span, his research over the years has wandered from performance modeling and networking to game theory and economics. Unable to focus on any single topic, his current research projects include cluster programming models, genomic sequence aligners, software-defined networking, and Internet architecture. Unable to hold a steady job, he currently splits his time between the U. C. Berkeley Computer Science Department and the International Computer Science Institute.