Networking Technology and Systems  (NeTS)

CONTACTS

See program guidelines for contact information.

SYNOPSIS

Future computer and communication networks must be available anytime and anywhere, be accessible from any communication device, be resource-efficient, require little or no management overhead, be resilient and adaptive to failures and malicious attacks, and be trustworthy for all types of communications. They must be able to evolve over time to incorporate new technologies, support new classes of applications and services, and meet new requirements and challenges. They also need to accommodate growth and unforeseen changes across many dimensions, including types of applications, traffic load, network size and topology, physical link characteristics, different mobility patterns, and heterogeneity, while achieving high-energy efficiency and reduced performance degradation.

The Networking Technology and Systems (NeTS) program supports the exploration of innovative and possibly radical network architectures, algorithms, protocols, and technologies that are responsive to the evolving requirements of current and yet to be discovered network services and applications operating in various environments. The NeTS program will enable scientific and technological advances leading to the development of future generation, high performance networks. The scope of the program ranges from personal area and home networks, to wireless and sensor networks, to enterprise, core and optical networks, and peer-to-peer and application-level networks.

Of interest is research in innovative paradigms, architectures, algorithms and protocols to address various challenges, in wired, wireless and sensor networks. Examples include the interconnection of heterogeneous networks, topology management, resource and service discovery, naming and addressing, routing and congestion control, mobility management at different levels and granularities, virtualization at scale and programmability  of hetergeneous physical substrates, strategies for the location of intelligence within the network and at  endpoints, and the impact of widely distributed, data intensive computing resources as in cloud computing. In the area of network control and management, NeTS will entertain innovative projects focused on novel frameworks, methods, protocols and tools that enable effective network monitoring, security, management, performance measurement, modeling, quality of service and diagnosis. Proposed solutions are expected to bring the network closer to autonomy, where the need for human intervention is minimal.

NeTS also seeks transformative research focused on the development of scalable, non-intrusive mechanisms, tools, and methodologies for network measurement and characterization, network simulation and network performance analysis, including the development and distribution of benchmarks targeted at specific classes of networking research, both for wired and wireless networks and protocols.

Research outcomes in the form of software and hardware technologies should be scalable, energy-efficient, ensure robust network operation, even in the most demanding and high performance environments, and be able to support automatic instantiation of protocols and facilitate their evolution.  Projects focused on innovative holistic approaches to address the end-to-end requirements of current and emerging applications in large-scale, heterogeneous networks are encouraged.  

Networking research and education projects of an inter-disciplinary nature should be directed to the Network Science and Engineering (NetSE) cross-cutting program (click here for solicitation - NSF 09-558). For example, projects that take a broad social, technical and economic perspective focusing on how networks are optimally designed to meet social, economic or legal challenges should be directed to the NetSE program.

For more information on the types of projects supported by the NeTS program, please visit the following web site http://www.nsf.gov/cise/cns/nets_pgm.jsp.

Networking Technology and Systems (NeTS) Staff

Funding Opportunities for the Networking Technology and Systems (NeTS) Program:

Computer and Network Systems (CNS): Core Programs.  NSF 09-556

THIS PROGRAM IS PART OF

Computer and Network Systems (CNS): Core Programs