Minneapolis Joint Techs - Focus Areas

Hybrid Networking
Campus Networking
Security

Hybrid Networking

Hybrid networking examines issues that arise when using non-Layer 3 networks. These issue range from measuring activity on shared Layer 2 networks to using non-IP protocols in the wide area.

The Minneapolis Joint Techs hybrid networking focus area will consist of two parts.

1. A series of presentations relating to examples of hybrid networking on campuses and in the wide area. Some planned talks are:

• Retrofitting a network for hybrid services
• Delivery of hybrid services into a campus environment
• InfiniBand in the wide area
• The Open Fabrics Alliance

2. A series of talks under the general title of "Developing a more detailed understanding of non-Layer 3 networks". Some areas of interest are:

• Measurement. How can we measure traffic across a simple point-to-point non-Layer3 network? How does this measurement model translate into multi-domain non-Layer3 networks?
• Security. How can we inspect traffic and determine its origin (or next-hop back), such that destructive traffic attacks can be traced to a source? Who is responsible for mitigating attacks, and where does the demarcation lie?
• Troubleshooting. What tools are available today, and what tools need to be created, so that troubleshooting of both point-to-point and multi-domain non-Layer 3 networks can be accomplished quickly and accurately?
• Spanning tree issues. How do we ensure loop-free topology among different vendors' equipment? (This issue is specific to Ethernet-based networks.)
• Non-Layer 3 network creation and control. Who will create and manage the control metadata for non-Layer 3 networks?

We are very interested in your presentations in these areas, or in other areas that define and explore the new challenges and that illustrate experiences in the hybrid networking area.

Campus Networking

The Campus LAN is a moving target; there are new technologies being deployed and new developments in old technologies happening all the time. This focus area will include presentations that discuss how these new technologies are being implemented in your network and how the old technologies are evolving and being re-architected so the new technologies can build on them. Some suggested topics:

1. New Technologies

• Wireless. There are many possible areas of interest in this subject; examples include management solutions, rogue detection, authentication, and encryption implementations.
• Network access control. This could include what's involved in allowing a machine on the network, and what's involved in keeping a machine off of the network once it is determined to be unwanted.
• Firewalls. In particular, lessons learned -- have firewalls been the panacea we thought they would be? How are they managed?
• VoIP. How is this going? Have there been unanticipated issues? We'd be interested in examples of campus or multi-building rollouts.
• Bandwidth management. How are you handling high-bandwidth applications and traffic needs? Are you beefing up the infrastructure to handle it across the campus? Or sending high-bandwidth traffic across alternate paths? Are you treating it as something special, or managing, monitoring, and securing it in the same way as your other traffic?

2. New Developments in Old Technologies

• Spanning tree. As Layer 2 networks span geographical areas, what new developments have happened to make this technology adapt? What about Fast, Rapid, and per-VLAN spanning tree?
• DNS. How old is your DNS infrastructure? How will it cope with DNSSEC and BIND 9?
• VLAN management. Are current VLAN limitations becoming a concern? How do you manage VLAN assignment, and recovery of unused VLANs?
• Network architecture. Have you taken a step back lately, looked at your network design, and determined whether it fits the needs of your users, yourself, and your management?

If a topic affects networking it probably is related to the Campus LAN, and we'd like to hear about it.

Security

In the Security area we're encouraging presentations that complement the Hybrid Networks and Campus Networks focus areas and presentations that speak to other timely issues, including:

• What are the unique security considerations for hybrid networks? Lambda, virtual, and other specialized interconnects increase the risk for bypass of traditional management and control points, including policy, architectural, security, and operational. Dynamic provisioning can amplify the considerations. While internetworking in the first degree is well known and understood, as the internetwork becomes more complex there are associated new security considerations and needed best practices.
• What are security considerations and best practices for VoIP? Enterprise concerns include both enterprise-wide systems and the implications of desktop VoIP. Some possible areas of interest are: Skype SuperNodes, SPIT (Spam over Internet Telephony), spoof prevention, SIP Asserted Identity, and SRTP (Secure Real-time Transport Protocol).
• What are the current considerations for DNS? How healthy is the research and education DNS infrastructure? What are the security challenges? How will DNS be important to protection methods being developed, and does that open the door for new security challenges? What is the status and future of DNSSEC?
• CALEA -- policy and technical considerations.

We welcome presentations that define and explore the new challenges and that illustrate experiences in these areas.