Soul of a New Network Protocol

Abstract – Why is route calculation done at both layers 2 and 3 of networking? Is one better? Do we need both? This talk explains the historical accident by which bridging was conceived and the properties that make it attractive, as well as dangerous, today. The talk discusses new work being done in IETF known as TRILL (TRansparent Interconnection of Lots of Links), which combines the advantages of bridges (layer 2 forwarding devices) and routers (layer 3 forwarding devices). Although the basic idea is fairly simple, certain properties of bridges, such as their ability to create partitioned VLANs on a layer 2 cloud, make the design challenging.

Biography – Radia Perlman specializes in network and security protocols and sometimes referred to as the “mother of the Internet.” She is the inventor of the spanning tree algorithm used by bridges, and the mechanisms that make modern link state protocols efficient and robust. She is the author of two textbooks, and has a PhD from MIT in computer science.