Why%20AN%20has%20always%20been%20doomed

1
Why AN has always been doomed

• Laurent Mathy
• Lancaster University

2
What is AN?

• Remember it all started with capsules
• To many this has evolved towards store-process-fo
  rward
• User-controlled operation
• This all means per-flow processing
• Complex packet classification
• Micro-flows or small aggregates
• Memory/cpu bottleneck

3
AN where?

• As a result, AN where flows are scarce
• That means the outer edge of the network
• Either inside tier-3 ISP at access with customers
• Or inside customer networks (campus/corporate
  networks)
• A no-no at tier-3/tier-2 boundaries and deeper
• This is near end-to-end

4
AN usefulness

• Because AN is only viable at outer edges,
  usefulness is rather limited
• Why push complex processing at
• End of first hop?
• Start of last hop?
• Can still be useful to help cross-layer designs
• Allow applications to peek inside the network
• Measurements (speed, volume!)
• routing info, etc
• Video transcoding anyone????

5
This guy is wrong!

• Wait! AN is open node architecture, open
  interfaces and clever software management
  (modular systems, reflections, etc)
• But OpenSIG/OpenArch have failed
• Do you remember IEEE PIN 1520 ?
• Node architects are doing fine, thank you
• Software engineers, OS developers and the others
  havent been sleeping
• modprob!

6
Imagine

• Even if CISCO can be persuaded and Network admin
  lets you run vetted third party code and
  somethings not working
• Who you gonna call?
• You have compatibility issues with the other
  side
• Looks like there are too many people who can
  blame each other
• After too many disturbed lunchesactive-net
  disable

7
Conclusion

• Wherever I look, I see issues for AN
• Not much operational sense
• Core today is edge tomorrow
• Not much commercial sense
• Constructors protectionism
• Academically, contribution has been to mostly
  show what not to do
• It is doomed and always has beenplease leave it
  where it belongs