2/21/23, 12:43 PM Computer Networks | Computer Science

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Computer Science 
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Computer Networks
Computer networks allow computers to communicate with one another, and provide the
fundamental infrastructures supporting our modern society. Research on computer networks at
Yale improves on essential network system properties such as efficiency, robustness, and
programmability. The research spans all networking layers, including application-network
integration (ANI); highly robust, flexible networking; software-defined networking (SDN) and
programmable networking applications; and mobile networking.

Faculty working in this area:

faculty email website

Anurag anurag.khandelwal@yale.edu Khandelwal Group

Khandelwal (mailto:anurag.khandelwal@yale.edu) (https://www.anuragkhandelwal.com/)

Robert robert.soule@yale.edu Soulé Group

Soulé (mailto:robert.soule@yale.edu) (https://www.cs.yale.edu/homes/soule/)

Y. Richard yry@cs.yale.edu Yang Group

Yang (mailto:yry@cs.yale.edu) (http://www.cs.yale.edu/homes/yry/)

Lin Zhong lin.zhong@yale.edu Efficient Computing Lab

(mailto:lin.zhong@yale.edu) (https://www.yecl.org)

 
Highlights in this area:
Application-network integration (ANI): the traditional architecture of network-oblivious
applications and application-oblivious networks is reaching its limit. Unilateral actions by
applications alone or networks alone cannot efficiently support increasingly data intensive
networked applications, with stricter requirements, in increasingly complex and heterogeneous
network infrastructures that span edge and cloud. Yale Computer Science plays a leading role in
the field of ANI. The research at Yale has led to the establishment of the Application-Layer Traffic
Optimization (ALTO) Working Group of the Internet Engineering Task Force, and the definition of
the ALTO Protocol, which is the first Internet standard supporting joint application and network

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interactions. Ongoing ANI work at Yale includes emerging fields such as ANI in 5G cellular
networks, application-defined networking (ADN), and joint network-application programmable
networking.
 
Highly robust, flexible networking: Although computer networks are becoming a critical
infrastructure of our information-based society, they still have not reached a level of being highly
reliable. The recent emergence of software-defined networking and learning based networking
control has substantially improved network flexibility, but not network reliability. Yale Computer
Science is leading the design, implementation and deployment of a novel networking control
architecture based on multiple control plane composition, to achieve network reliability and
programmability that cannot be achieved by individual, modular networking alone. Designed to
address the challenges of tactical networks, the architecture can be fully realized in other modern
networking infrastructures, with ongoing work realizing the architecture in some of the largest
cloud data center networks and mobile networks.
 
Software-defined networking (SDN) and programmable networking applications: A major
transformation of the modern networking infrastructures is the emergence of software-defined
networking, which includes programmable networking data path, and the separation of the control
plane and the data plane. The deployment of these techniques in some of the largest networks has
been massively successful. Yale Computer Science plays leading roles in this important field, in
designing high-level programming languages for SDN, joint network-application SDN
programming, and novel applications of programmable data paths.
 
Mobile networks: Modern mobile networks are undergoing a radical transformation, migrating
from dedicated, specialized infrastructures to public, shared ones, while delivering unprecedented
throughput, coverage and latency. This transformation necessitates the virtualization of resources
across the entire network stack, from spectrum to computation. It coincides with the emergence
of edge data centers where latency-sensitive network functions must reside. Yale Computer
Science has played a leading role in the development of massive MIMO technology and its
virtualization for mobile networks and is a major participating university of the NSF AI Institute for
Edge Computing Leveraging Next Generation Networks. 
 

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