Salim Hariri, Director
The University of Arizona
1230 E. Speedway Blvd
Tucson, Arizona 85721
Tele: (520) 621-4378, Fax: (520) 621-8076
email: hariri@ece.arizona.edu

With the exponential growth of the Internet and the use of World Wide Web, an information revolution is taking place with the industry experiencing an explosive growth and innovations in network-centric systems. The research and education goals of CAT are:

1. Establish a comprehensive and useful network-centric system engineering.
2. Develop enabling technologies including (a) software tools to assist in the design and analysis of network-centric systems and their services; (b) active agent technologies that can be dynamically programmed to implement any desired control and management functions; (c) hardware and software subsystems to allow real-time monitoring and management at very high transmission rates (Terabit/Gigabit per second); (d) mobile, global, wireless Internet access;
3. Demonstrate and validate the enabling information technologies to build smart active community networks, advanced healthcare systems, and digital battlefield of the future;
4. Integrate the Center’s activities with established academic programs to provide effective learning opportunities for both undergraduate and graduate students; and
5. Establish the Center as a technical forum through which researchers and users from industry, research institutions, and government organizations exchange ideas and information about network system engineering field.

1. VISION AND RATIONALE FOR THE CENTER

Our vision for the Center is to create a unique multi-disciplinary culture to educate a new breed of network engineering leaders and produce innovative science and technology critical to design, operation, and management of Next-generation Network-centric Systems (NNS). The Center will lead the development of theory and methodology techniques, and advanced enabling technologies (software and hardware) that will allow the introduction of large scale interactive and integrated information services such as Smart Network Community, Medical Informatics, Integrated Electronic Commerce, and Intelligent Traffic Control and Management. We believe that in the next millenium, the fastest growth will be in the industry that provides integrated information services. The proposed Center will develop an innovative environment to address the research, education, and technology transfer needs for this emerging global market.

VALUE TO INDUSTRY AND NATION

The explosive proliferation of high performance desktop computers, high-speed networks, and the exponential growth in Internet-based services have made network-centric systems touch all aspects of our lives in education, industry, finance, medicine, science, government, and military. Our dependence on these systems and their information services is growing at an alarming rate in spite of the fact that our current approach to design, deploy, and manage such systems and services are at best ad-hoc. Systematic design and understanding of such systems are critical to our national security and information superiority, but we do not have robust means to protect and secure our information infrastructure. Current information systems crash very often, do not have mechanisms to validate and/or guarantee their services and functionalities, and thus lead to serious security, performance, and assurance problems that threaten our national security and information superiority.

We stand at the advent of a new revolution. In the 18the century, the industrial revolution first enhanced agriculture and then exploded into other market areas. In the 20^th century, the computer and communication revolution made industry more efficient and led to an information revolution; in each new era, the existing economy- nationally and globally- has exploded and created incredible new wealth. The Internet era is just underway, and it has already demonstrated the enormous potential of global market for the integrated information services. Table 1 shows the potential market growth for information services in telecommunication market (both space and terrestrial), commercial remote sensing, and commercial navigation. The hardware cost of such systems is relatively small when compared with the potential market of the integrated information services.

Market Type	1998		1999		2000
Telecommunications	Hardware 200 B	Service 800 B	Hardware 220 B	Service 920 B	Hardware 240 B	Service 950 B
Commercial Remote Sensing	1.8 Billions		2.0 Billions		2.5 Billions
Commercial Navigation	4.8 Billions		6.4 Billions		8.47 Billions

2. TECHNICAL BARRIERS AND CHALLENGES

The technical barriers and challenges that face the designers, developers, industry, and users of network-centric systems are the following:

• The lack of theory and methodology that can describe the functionality and performance of NNS leads to systems with frequent failures, security problems, and significant increase in the design-to-production time for new network technology and services.
• These systems are expected to form the basis of our national backbone information infrastructure and will carry a wide range of information services (commerce, health, government, military, etc.). The challenge is to seamlessly introduce new systems and enhanced services without disrupting the current operational environment.
• Current methods of design and deployment of large scale distributed information systems lead to inflexible and non-adaptive systems.
• NNS will need novel measures of Quality of Service (QoS), characterizing a system’s ability to deliver services and meet requirements. For example, how to assure that a global system offering telesurgery meets stringent reliability requirements.
• No comprehensive models exist to characterize and quantify the requirements of network-centric applications and services, to predict the behavior of such systems, and be able to assure with high confidence the security and the performance of the NNS operations and services.
• The lack of robust, proactive, distributed, network management techniques of achieving required performance, security, scalability, and dependability. Current commercially available network management systems are centralized systems and require network managers to analyze large numbers of events and perform management functions manually.
• Explosive growth in network-centric systems and services has increased the demand for network management expertise that is not widely available. Current programs in electrical and computer engineering, and computer science do not focus on network engineering and management issues and do not provide hands-on-experience in the management and control of networked systems.
• The NNS will be several orders of magnitude more complex than current networked systems. This will make management task much more challenging.
• The rapid changes in software and hardware technologies make the continuous support of such services and their interoperability a very challenging technical problem.
• The challenge to provide transparent computation services to users in application areas such as astronomy, molecular sciences, aeronautics, etc is daunting.
• Application developers must become experts in software tools to be used and in the architectures and limitations of the underlying computing and communications systems.
• The lack of trained non-technical users of such advanced information systems means that, at least initially, the systems must be relatively straight forward to operate.

• The Center mission goes far beyond the delivery of needed research. We are planning to develop a unique environment to educate a new generation of network engineers who will apply the theory and methodology developed by the Center to design the next generation network centric systems and services. Furthermore, the Center will attract the brightest and the best students to pursue a professional career in network system engineering. Currently, we have a strong demand for programs in network technologies and their applications. The Center proposes to develop network engineering programs that will be very attractive to these students.
• A Center that aims at integrating computing and communication systems based on novel engineering principles rather than ad-hoc approaches will pioneer the development of the theoretical foundations to build NNS. We strongly believe that we cannot afford not to develop theoretical network system engineering. We have established a point of departure to address the challenges involved.
• A university Center is the ideal place to blend expertise in a multi-disciplinary environment involving several fields in science and engineering. The researchers involved in this Center have well-established record of achievement in network centric systems.
• Universities can provide a forum to bring together representatives of a number of industries and various government agencies in a unique, open, non-regulatory setting where they can be encouraged to addressing the current and future problems facing next-generation network-centric systems.

4. STRATIGIC RESEARCH PLAN

We have identified the main barriers and challenges to designing network-centric systems and their services. The Center’s research strategy aims at eliminating these barriers and also developing new technologies/capabilities to improve the operations and functionalities of the NNS. This research strategy can be highlighted as follows:

• Development of a novel theoretical approach to model, analyze, and predict the behavior of large scale interactive complex networked systems. This strategy will eventually lead to a set of standardized models to characterize and quantify NNS resources and their services.
• Development of enabling technologies (hardware and software) to assist in solving the technical barriers of NNS. These new enabling technologies will allow mobile wireless internet access; global resource allocation and management; design and analysis tools for NNS; on-line network monitoring and diagnosis; and automatic network control and management capabilities.
• Development of new technologies that will be essential to the design and deployment of NNS and their services. Current technologies are only adequate for rigid, passive computing and communication systems.
• Development of experimental NNS testbeds to validate, and experiment with the technologies being developed at the Center. This strategy will focus on establishing several controlled testbeds associated with the Center members that will encompass most of the complexities, resources, and the services associated with NNS. We have already received a strong support from industry and government organizations to pursue the development of such testbeds. Currently, a Smart Community network is being designed for the Tucson, AZ area by US WEST with the participation of U. of A, Community and State Government agencies.

The research activities of the Center is divided into three "Thrust Areas" that cover the broad research areas of NNS (see Figure 1). Figure 1 shows the main research projects associated with each thrust area. The thrust areas are comprehensive and we can not address all these issues simultaneously. However, our plan is to start with a few important projects and then adopt a policy by which new projects can start later as other projects are completed. The decision on project selection is made by the Center’s Executive Committee.

The Theory and Methodology thrust area will develop a revolutionary scientific and multidisciplinary environment to produce the theoretical techniques needed to design and predict the functionality and performance of NNS. The Enabling Technology thrust area will transition the discoveries and the methodologies found in thrust area A into new technologies (software and/or hardware) that can assist in the design, control and management of NNS. The Information Services thrust area will utilize the enabling technologies developed in thrust area B to design, and introduce large scale interactive network-centric systems that will be used as NNS testbeds to validate and demonstrate the research results of the proposed Center. The Information Services to be developed and demonstrated will be centered around Smart Network Community and will include applications such as distance learning and telemedicine.

The proof-of-concept testbed that will be used initially involve the development of Tucson Smart Network Community (SNC) that represents an interesting collaborative project to unify four important market areas (industry, government, education, and residence) into one. The SNC testbed will be designed and developed based on the results of thrust areas A and B. In addition, it will be used to validate and demonstrate the Center enabling technologies such as on-line monitoring and diagnosis, and proactive network management.

In order to carry out this research program in these three major thrust areas and projects, we have assembled a strong team of faculty researchers in theory and methodology, technology and tool development, and information services.

6. INDUSTRIAL COLLABORATION AND TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER

Partnership with industry is a main goal of the center. Since our decision to propose this center, we have contacted representatives of the industry involved in developing network centric systems products to discuss the challenges of integrating computing and networking systems and invited them to attend the "Workshop on the Integration of High Speed Networks and Computing Systems" that was held at the University of Arizona on Friday, October 30, 1998. The purposes of the workshop were (1) to introduce CAT as an organization which supports the collaboration of industry and university researchers concerned with network-centric systems; (2) to examine the challenging research problems in networks, computing systems, and applications; and (3) to initiate a collaborative, multidisciplinary research program among industrial and academic members of CAT. Most of the industry representatives who attended our workshop endorsed the proposed Center and we are currently negotiating with their management the mechanisms for their participation in the CAT program. For further details about the workshop summary and the attendant list, please visit our CAT website at www.ece.arizona.edu/~hpdc/cat.

The industrial participation is a primary part of all CAT activities that can be outlined as follows:

1. Joint Projects with Industry. Most of the thrust areas have already identified industry partners who are very interested in the research activities and the expected results.
2. Joint Representations in all CAT activities. Industry representatives will be involved in all CAT activities (research, education, and technology transfer) at all levels (executive, steering and focused working group levels).
3. The center will establish a membership program that aims at creating strong incentives for industries to become members and receive appropriate benefits.

Our technology transfer strategy is summarized in the following points:

1. Facilitating Exchange of Experts. The center will facilitate the transfer of experts through placement of graduates and interns, educational leaves for university faculty in industry, assignment of industry researchers at the Center and joint teaching and research projects.
2. Facilitate Commercialization of Technology Developed at the Center. We will develop mechanisms to speedup the process of obtaining patents and transition the technology developed at the center to the marketplace.
3. Support Startup Companies/Incubators. One mechanism to speedup the technology transfer is to support startup companies during the initial phases of transitioning CAT technology to the marketplace.
4. Support Technology Transfer Workshops/Seminars. The center will plan and hold regular technology transfer workshops and conferences, and will host special invited visits. We will use state-of-the-art distance learning technologies to communicate the research results of the proposed Center and explore opportunities to transfer these results into industry.

The main components of the Center management are as follows (see Figure 3):

1. The Center Director: Prof. Salim Hariri of University of Arizona who will direct the main activities of the center and coordination between different Universities and reporting to the Dean of Engineering.
2. Research and Technology Directors: Prof. Ahmed Louri will be the research director at University of Arizona and will lead the research activities. Prof. Ralph Martinez at University of Arizona will be the technology transfer director and he has a lot of experince working with industry.
3. Executive Committee: This committee sets the policy and strategy of all the Center activities (research, education, and technology transfer). The committee comprises of the Center Director, and representatives from the University Advisory Board and the Technical Advisory Board. This committee will monitor the Center progress, plan the Center’s growth, monitor the progress of all Thrust Areas and their collaboration and interaction, plan the Center’s interaction/industrial relationship and outreach and plan the priorities. This committee based on the recommendation of the research steering committee evaluates the current projects and selects the ones that can achieve and advance the Center objectives.
4. Steering Committees: These committees develop mechanisms and strategies to implement the recommendations of the executive management committee. There will be three steering committees: Research Steering Committee, Education Steering Committee, and Technology Transfer Steering Committee. Each steering committee monitors closely the progress made in its focused area (education, research, and technology transfer), obstacles, recommend changes and update to its mission, and reports them to the Executive Committee
5. Working Committees: These committees carry out the strategies and mechanisms suggested by the corresponding steering committee and report about progress, obstacles, etc. encountered during the implementation phase. These committees comprise of the thrust area leaders and the Center research project leaders.