The Future of Distributed Network Research Infrastructure

Shared research infrastructure that is globally distributed and widely accessible has been a hallmark of the networking community. We present a vision for a future mid-scale distributed research infrastructure aimed at enabling new types of discoveries. The "lessons learned" from constructing and operating the Global Environment for Network Innovations (GENT) infrastructure are the basis for our attempt to project future concepts and solutions. Our aim is to engage the community to contribute new ideas and to inform funding agencies about future research directions.