Computer networks form an important part of our daily lives. They enable you to see the page you are currently viewing. These networks are becoming more complex, and also faster. The Network Description Language (NDL) will help to reduce the complexity issues in computer networks. The goal of NDL is to allow applications to have a better understanding of the network so they can more easily adapt it to their needs.
The Network Description Language provides a way to describe computer networks in a meaningful way. Using the Resource Description Framework (RDF), we created an ontology for computer networks. With this ontology you can create a simple and clear description of a network.
The need of a shared common vocabulary that describes networks is particularly important in Optical Networking, and specifically in facilitating the multi-domain provisioning of lightpaths. Currently we cooperate with other researchers in the GLIF to promote NDL as the common language for the community. We are also working with many others in the Open Grid Forum (OGF) in the Network Markup Language WG (NML-WG) to standardise a description language. The first version of NML is being standardised, please comment here.
Semantic Infrastructures
We have extended the ideas of NML also to other kinds of resources, as expressed in the figure below. More on this can be found in our paper on the Infrastructure & Network Description Language (INDL).
Publications on NDL
- A Semantic-Web Approach for Modeling Computing Infrastructures Mattijs Ghijsen, Jeroen van der Ham, Paola Grosso, Cosmin Dumitru, Hao Zhu, Zhiming Zhao and Cees de Laat Technical Report UVA-SNE-2013-01 , March 2013, PDF
- Network Service Interface – gateway for future network services Radek Krzywania (PSNC), Joan A. García -Espín (i2CAT), Chin Guok, Inder Monga (ESnet), Jeroen van der Ham (UvA), Tomohiro Kudoh (AIST), John MacAuley (SURFnet), Joe Mambretti (Northwestern University), Guy Roberts (DANTE), Jerry Sobieski (NORDUnet), Alexander Willner (University of Bonn), In the proceedings of the 12th Terena Networking Conference (ISBN 978-90-77559-00-0) , Oct 2012, PDF
- Semantic Distributed Resource Discovery for Multiple Resource Providers Chariklis Pittaris, Mattijs Ghijsen, Adianto Wibisono, Paola Grosso, Jeroen van der Ham and Cees de Laat, In the Eighth International Conference on Semantics, Knowledge and Grids , 2012,
- Towards an Infrastructure Description Language for Modeling Computing Infrastructures Mattijs Ghijsen, Jeroen van der Ham, Paola Grosso and Cees de Laat, In The 10th IEEE International Symposium on Parallel and Distributed Processing with Applications , 2012, PDF
- Challenges of an Information Model for Federating Virtualized Infrastructures Jeroen van der Ham, Chrysa Papagianni, József Stéger, Péter Mátray, Yiannos Kryftis, Paola Grosso, Leonidas Lymberopoulos 5th International DMTF Academic Alliance Workshop on Systems and Virtualization Management: Standards and the Cloud (SVM 2011) 2011 PDF
- A Semantic Model for Complex Computer Networks Jeroen van der Ham PhD Thesis , April 2010, PDF
- Framework for Path Finding in Multi-Layer Transport Networks, Freek Dijkstra PhD Thesis, June 2009, PDF
- A Multi-Layer Network Model Based on ITU-T G.805 Freek Dijkstra, Bert Andree, Karst Koyman, Jeroen van der Ham and Cees de Laat, Computer Networks, Vol. 52, Issue 10, pp. 1927–1937 , July 2008, PDF
- A Path Finding Implementation for Multi-layer Networks Freek Dijkstra, Jeroen van der Ham, Paola Grosso, Cees de Laat Future Generation Computer Systems, Vol. 25, Issue 2, pp. 142-146 , February 2009 (online 23 July 2008), PDF
- Using the Network Description Language in Optical Networks. Jeroen van der Ham, Paola Grosso, Ronald van der Pol, Andree Toonk and Cees de Laat, In: Tenth IFIP/IEEE Symposium on Integrated Network Management , May, 2007, PDF
- Using RDF to Describe Networks, Jeroen van der Ham, Freek Dijkstra, Franco Travostino, Hubertus Andree and Cees de Laat, Future Generation Computer Systems, Feature topic iGrid 2005 , 2006, PDF