Pronto: Verifiable, Closed-Loop Control of 5G Networks

Nate Foster, Associate Professor, Computer Science, Computing and Information Science; Principal Research Engineer at Barefoot Networks

Abstract:

This talk will introduce Pronto (https://prontoproject.org), an open-source 5G testbed being developed by a team at Cornell, Princeton, Stanford and the Open Networking Foundation. Whereas today's networks are opaque systems, controlled by reading some predefined “dials” and tuning some predefined “knobs,” Pronto is based on open interfaces with clear semantics that can be used to customize the network to suit individual applications. Associate Professor Foster will show how Pronto enables specifying the intended behavior of the network in software and verifying that it is behaving as expected. He will also highlight opportunities for applying these capabilities in the context of digital agriculture.

Pronto is a collaboration with a large research team including Sachin Katti (Stanford), Nick McKeown (Stanford and Intel), Guru Parulkar (ONF), Larry Peterson (ONF), and Oguz Sunay (ONF).

Bio:

Nate Foster is an Associate Professor of Computer Science at Cornell University, a Principal Research Engineer at Barefoot Networks, and Chair of the P4 Language Technical Steering Team. The goal of his research is to develop languages and tools that make it easy for programmers to build secure and reliable systems. His current work focuses on the design and implementation of languages for programming software-defined networks. In the past he has also worked on bidirectional languages (also known as “lenses”), database query languages, data provenance, type systems, mechanized proof, and formal semantics. He received a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Pennsylvania, an MPhil in History and Philosophy of Science from Cambridge University, and a BA in Computer Science from Williams College. His awards include a Sloan Research Fellowship, an NSF CAREER Award, the SIGCOMM Rising Star Award, a Most Influential POPL Paper Award, a Tien ‘72 Teaching Award, several Google Research Awards, a Yahoo! Academic Career Enhancement Award, a Cornell Engineering Research Excellence Award, and the Morris and Dorothy Rubinoff Award.