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Bryan Ng and Ian Welch are co-principal
investigators on the grant.
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Victoria
University has further solidified its place at the forefront of
research in one of the most innovative emerging technology
areas—Software Defined Networks (SDN).
After the formation of the Software Defined
Networks Research Centre in 2014, Victoria’s School of
Engineering and Computer Science has gone on to sign a three-year
research agreement with Google to embark on work in SDN development,
maintenance, and teaching.
Traditionally,
networking hardware is manufactured with specific software in mind,
but standardising the way that software interacts with hardware
allows developers the freedom to go beyond what is provided as
standard by networking hardware.
“This means
software developers can write programs for their own specific
networking needs, and they are less restricted by the specific set-up
of the hardware, which is more conducive to innovation,” says
senior lecturer Dr Ian Welch.
“The
flexibility of SDN technology means network modifications can be made
more readily, and system threats dealt with rapidly and effectively.
Even better, we can make networks more reliable by applying
well-understood techniques from software engineering such as unit
testing and formal methods. Overall, this makes for a commercially
nimble, cost effective solution because it allows maximisation of the
use of bandwidth and is potentially more secure and reliable than
existing technologies.”
According to
Google’s representative software engineer at Victoria, Josh Bailey,
companies such as Google, Facebook or Amazon wouldn’t be in
business without the vital role of network engineers.
“SDN is set to
revolutionise things further by allowing better management of things
such as cloud services, big data, and consumer-interfacing
technology, and it provides attractive options for scaling up
business operations,” says Mr Bailey.
“This means SDN
technology is set to be a growth industry and a serious option for
any student considering network engineering.”
The three-year
research agreement with Google provides a platform for Victoria to
grow its profile in SDN teaching and research, with the hope of
bringing more students into this emerging field and partnering with
other academic and commercial organisations who want to explore the
new field of software defined networking.
ian.welch@ecs.vuw.ac.nz,
04, 463 5664
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