Project information

Introduction

While home and small office/home office networks have provide any number of benefits -- internet access, media sharing, shared printers, etc. -- they seldom live up to their potential. Many such networks are subject to security problems, some of which allow attackers access, and some which negatively impact usability by providing too much or the wrong security. These networks also often simply do not provide for as good of a user experience as possible, for example because bandwidth provisioning in such networks is simple-minded.

While our client, Nicira Networks, focuses on large networks such as enterprise and datacenter networks, the technologies they use and develop could serve to iron out the rough spots of home/SOHO networks, and allow for whole new classes of home network capabilities. It is the task of Team NOX and the NOX At Home project to make this a reality.

Product Statement

There is more potential for NOX and OpenFlow in the home network than we could possibly develop in a semester. Our true goal is not to deliver the end-all-be-all of home networking. Our goal is simply to get the process started -- to provide the proper "jumping off point" from which future home/SOHO networking tools can be built. This means we must cater to two separate audiences: the technical audience of people wishing to do network research or develop specific network "applications" for the home, and nontechnical consumers who simply wish to take advantage of these tools.

Our solution can actually take some hints from the three principles that drove the development of Ethane:

• The network should be governed by policies declared over high-level names.
• Network routing should be policy-aware.
• The network should track bindings between network traffic and the high-level entities that are its source and destination.
• An ordinary consumer end-user should be able to operate the system with a minimal investment of time.
• Users should not find the system to be a burden to use.