Network Sovereignty: A Novel Metric and its Application on Network Design

TL;DR

This paper introduces the concept of network sovereignty, a new metric called Path Set Diversity (PSD), and an ILP-based method named Naga to optimize network design for reduced manufacturer dependency and increased robustness.

Contribution

It presents the novel concept of network sovereignty, a new metric PSD, and an ILP formulation Naga to maximize network robustness against manufacturer failures.

Findings

Naga outperforms heuristics and availability-based methods in maximizing network sovereignty.

PSD effectively quantifies network robustness against manufacturer dependency.

Network sovereignty enhances network resilience in failure scenarios.

Abstract

Most network planning problems in literature consider metrics such as cost, availability, and other technology-aware attributes. However, network operators now face new challenges in designing their networks to minimize their dependencies on manufacturers. A low dependency is associated with higher network robustness in case one or more manufacturers fail due to erroneous component design, geopolitical banning of manufacturers, or other reasons discussed in this work. Our work discusses network sovereignty, i.e., the ability to operate a network without dependencies on a particular manufacturer while minimizing the impact of simultaneous manufacturer failure(s). Network sovereignty is considered by solving the manufacturer assignment problem in the network such that robustness is maximized. The three main contributions of this work are (i) the discussion of network sovereignty as a special attribute of dependability, (ii) the introduction of a novel metric -- the Path Set Diversity (PSD) score to measure network sovereignty, and (iii) the introduction of Naga, an ILP formulation to maximize network sovereignty using the PSD score. We compare Naga's performance with centrality metrics-based heuristics and an availability-based optimization. Our work aims to be the foundation to guide network operators in increasing their network sovereignty.