Assessing network management complexity

What does it mean "to manage a network is complex"? This line of work results from the observation that while complexity is a well-defined concept from a mathematical point of view, it is harder to describe when talking about managing a network.

Our research focuses on quantitative and qualitative methods to assess complexity in the context of networked system management. The objective is to develop tools that can be used to investigate the impact of the shift from an operator-centric mode of system management to intent-driven and automated decision-making.

Keywords: network management; complexity measures; system abstractions.

Ongoing projects

Operation effort perception	The project investigates the perception of complexity from a network operator's point of view using survey methods from social science.
	Keywords: management efforts; network operators; survey.

Past projects

IXP management complexity	The project investigated the link between evaluating the complexity of operating typical network architectures and characterising the knowledge that is required to configure and monitor these networks. It explored the use of standardised models of network functionality in the community (i.e., YANG models) to develop an operator-centric complexity evaluation framework.
	Keywords: IXP; YANG models; openconfig.