Paul Barford

Associate Professor, Department of Computer Sciences
University of Wisconsin-Madison
1210 West Dayton Street
Madison, WI 53706-1685

Tel: (608) 262-6609
FAX: (608) 262-9777
E-mail: pb (at) cs (dot) wisc (dot) edu


Ph.D. Boston University, December, 2000.

Research Interests: Internet measurement and analysis. Internet security.

Current Professional Activities

Board of Directors: National LambdaRail
Associate Editor: ACM Transactions on Networking
Steering Committee: ACM/USENIX Internet Measurement Conference
Organizing Committee: IPAM Program on Internet Multiresolution Analysis 2008
Program Committee: ACM SIGMETRICS 2008
Program Committee: ACM Computer and Communications Security 2008
Program Committee: USENIX Security Symposium 2008
Program Committee: NetDB 2008
Program Committee: AINTEC 2008

C.V. (pdf)


Courses

Fall, 2008: CS 640 Introduction to Computer Networks
Fall, 2007: CS 638 Network Systems Laboratory
Spring, 2005: CS 740 Advanced Computer Networks


Research

Publications

Software & Data

My research interests are in measurement, analysis and security of wide area networked systems and network protocols. My research group conducts projects in the Wisconsin Advanced Internet Laboratory (WAIL) which has two components: measurement systems widely deployed in the live Internet, and a large test lab which enables large networks of routers and end-hosts to be configured and studied. Our current research is focused in the following domains:

Network Measurement and Evaluation

While taking measurements in a system as complex and diverse as the Internet is very challenging, it is fundamental to understanding Internet structure and behavior. Our work in this area is concerned with developing methods, tools and systems that improve our perspective on empirical aspects of the Internet. We use both passive and active systems deployed in the live Internet to facilitate this work. A particular emphasis of our study is on measuring anomalous network behavior.

Analysis and modeling of Internet behavior has resulted in our development of the HARPOON flow-level traffic generator, the SURGE Web workload generator, the MACE malicious traffic generator and critical path analysis for TCP transactions. Our current focus is on understanding details of transport and routing behavior, the nature of packet loss and the application of multiresolution analysis techniques to measurement data. These methods require a basic understanding of self-similarity.

Network Security

Our interests in security are concerned with the practical issues of intrusion detection, coordinated intrusion monitoring and self-direction in firewalls and NIDS. The DOMINO project is our distributed, coordinated intrusion detection infrastructure based on widely deployed monitors. A key component of DOMINO is our iSink system for monitoring unused address space.

Support

Our research activities are supported in part by grants from the National Science Foundation ( No. CNS-0627102, CNS-0347252, ANI-0335234, CCR-0325653, ANI-0117810), The Department of Homeland Security (No. NBCHCO40146), and Cisco Systems.


Some good words...

"We especially need imagination in science. It's not all mathematics, nor all logic, but it is somewhat beauty and poetry." - Maria Mitchell, first female member of the National Academy of Science.

"When people ask me why I run, I tell them that a lot of people run races to see who's the fastest. I run races to see who has the most guts." - Steve Prefontaine.


Last updated on September 20, 2004.