The Internet has become a part of our everyday lives. We use it to conduct much of our business, government, and social interactions. However, the scale and heterogeneity of the Internet have far surpassed anyone's expectations, and the Internet is responding by showing signs of strain. Security was not a major goal of the original design of Internet protocols, and it is now far too easy for malicious agents to engage in disruptive activities. The need to manage the network was not in mind from the beginning, making it difficult for network administrators. For the Internet to meet these challenges, we need a much deeper understanding both of the properties of our existing protocols and of the fundamental trade-offs that should guide the design of the future Internet. The Center for Discrete Mathematics and Theoretical Computer Science (DIMACS) is holding a 3-year special focus devoted to the study of algorithms and protocols for large-scale networks in a way that is guided by a deep understanding of the current Internet while also allowing for the possibility of radical change where this is warranted. This is an emerging cross-disciplinary area that requires expertise from several fields including networking, theory of computing, computer and communications security, and game theory. The special focus, open to participants nationwide and worldwide, begins with a three-day tutorial designed to introduce participants to topics at the intersection of algorithms and networking. Focused working groups of researchers will concentrate on secure Internet routing; designing networks for manageability; and data structures and algorithms for network data. Workshops will be held on topics ranging from Internet tomography to pervasive networks, systems, and applications.
DIMACS Special Focus on Algorithmic Foundations of the Internet