xx Software Networks
Virtualization also has an impact on security: the power of the
Cloud, with specialized virtual machines, means that attackers have
remarkable striking force at their disposal. In the last few years,
hackers’ ability to break encryption algorithms has increased by a
factor of 5-6.
Another important point which absolutely must be integrated in
networks is “intelligence”. So-called “intelligent networks” have had
their day, but the intelligence in this case was not really what we mean
by “intelligence” in this field. Rather, it was a set of automatic
mechanisms, employed to deal with problems perfectly determined in
advance, such as a signaling protocol for providing additional features
in the telephone system. Here, intelligence pertains to learning
mechanisms and intelligent decisions based on the network status and
user requests. The network needs to become an intelligent system,
capable of making decisions on its own. One solution to help move in
this direction was introduced by IBM in the early 2000s: “autonomic”.
“Autonomic” means autonomous and spontaneous – autonomous
in the sense that every device in the network must be able to
independently make decisions with knowledge of the situated
view, i.e. the state of the nodes surrounding it within a certain
number of hops. The solutions that have been put forward to
increase the smartness of the networks are influenced by Cloud
technology. We shall discuss them in detail in the chapter on
“smart edges” (Chapter 3).
Finally, one last point, which could be viewed as the fourth
revolution, is concretization – i.e. the opposite of virtualization.
Indeed, the problem with virtualization is a significant reduction in
performance, stemming from the replacement of hardware with
software. There are a variety of solutions that have been put forward
to regain the performance: software accelerators and, in particular, the
replacement of software with hardware, in the step of concretization.
The software is replaced by reconfigurable hardware, which can
transform depending on the software needing to be executed. This
approach is likely to create morphware networks, which will be
described in Chapter 8.
www.it-ebooks.info
Virtualization also has an impact on security: the power of the
Cloud, with specialized virtual machines, means that attackers have
remarkable striking force at their disposal. In the last few years,
hackers’ ability to break encryption algorithms has increased by a
factor of 5-6.
Another important point which absolutely must be integrated in
networks is “intelligence”. So-called “intelligent networks” have had
their day, but the intelligence in this case was not really what we mean
by “intelligence” in this field. Rather, it was a set of automatic
mechanisms, employed to deal with problems perfectly determined in
advance, such as a signaling protocol for providing additional features
in the telephone system. Here, intelligence pertains to learning
mechanisms and intelligent decisions based on the network status and
user requests. The network needs to become an intelligent system,
capable of making decisions on its own. One solution to help move in
this direction was introduced by IBM in the early 2000s: “autonomic”.
“Autonomic” means autonomous and spontaneous – autonomous
in the sense that every device in the network must be able to
independently make decisions with knowledge of the situated
view, i.e. the state of the nodes surrounding it within a certain
number of hops. The solutions that have been put forward to
increase the smartness of the networks are influenced by Cloud
technology. We shall discuss them in detail in the chapter on
“smart edges” (Chapter 3).
Finally, one last point, which could be viewed as the fourth
revolution, is concretization – i.e. the opposite of virtualization.
Indeed, the problem with virtualization is a significant reduction in
performance, stemming from the replacement of hardware with
software. There are a variety of solutions that have been put forward
to regain the performance: software accelerators and, in particular, the
replacement of software with hardware, in the step of concretization.
The software is replaced by reconfigurable hardware, which can
transform depending on the software needing to be executed. This
approach is likely to create morphware networks, which will be
described in Chapter 8.
www.it-ebooks.info