Postdoc position on advanced inter-domain routing security

Your challenges

• Develop and evaluate new inter-domain routing security concepts that go beyond existing routing security protocols. For instance, to enable users to validate the properties of the paths through which their data travels through the Internet.
• Act as the technical coordinator of the project “User-driven Path Verification and Control for Inter-domain Networks” (UPIN), closely work with a group of 3 Ph.D. candidates on routing security, and potentially supervise 1-2 M.Sc. students

Your project

You will conduct research that advances the security of the Internet’s routing system, with a particular focus on the project “User-driven Path Verification and Control for Inter-domain Networks” (UPIN). The goal of UPIN is to develop and evaluate a scalable distributed system that enables users to cryptographically verify and easily control the paths through which their data travels through the Internet, such as in terms of router-to-router hops or router attributes (e.g., their location, operator, security level, and manufacturer). This new level of transparency and control over Internet data paths is particularly important for future safety-critical applications, such as remote control of wind farms at sea, tele-robots, and autonomous driving. This is unlike how the Internet works today, where users have no detailed insight into who processes their data (e.g., in terms of service providers their data passes through as well as what jurisdictions apply) and have very little control over how it is being routed. This is a risk for people’s privacy (e.g., a malicious network compromising a user’s data) as well as for their safety (e.g., an untrusted network disrupting a remote surgery). One potential direction to solve this problem is through the concept of a “Trusted Topology” that the IETF's RATS Working Group is developing and how this concept may be used to provide "high trust" data paths across Autonomous Systems.

You will carry out the work in the Design and Analysis of Communications Systems (DACS) group at the University of Twente. You will closely collaborate with two Ph.D. candidates at DACS who are working on multi-criteria-based routing security and routing hijacks. You will also work with a Ph.D. candidate at the Multi-Scale Networked Systems (MNS) group at the University of Amsterdam, who focuses on path control mechanisms for inter-domain routing. Finally, you will work with our industry partners in UPIN and beyond, such as NLnet Labs, SIDN, and SURF.

You will also act as the technical coordinator of UPIN, which means that you will keep monitor and guide the technical direction of UPIN and find synergies with the work carried out by the three Ph.D. candidates. You will report to prof. Cristian Hesselman, who leads UPIN and the chair Trusted Open Networking. You will also supervise 1-2 M.Sc. students

The UPIN project is financed by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) and industry partners NLnet Labs, SIDN, and SURF.

You will:

• Conduct research into new routing concepts and mechanisms that increase insight in and control over the trustworthiness of Internet paths, such as for critical applications.
• Implement and evaluate your ideas, for instance using BIRD or the national P4-programmable network operated by the 2STiC consortium.
• Work with service providers and other stakeholders to demonstrate the added value of concepts like path verification functions.
• Present (preliminary) results at appropriate meetings and conferences.
• Publish results in scientific workshops, magazines, and journals.
• Contribute to teaching on topics related to your work.
• Represent and promote UPIN in collaboration with the project partners.
• Closely work with a group of 2 Ph.D. candidates at DACS and 1 at MNS.
• Act as the technical coordinator of UPIN, reporting to the project lead.