Title: An issue in computer science, a challenge from information technology

Abstract:
This talk discusses two (unrelated) problems that are of general and fundamental interest.

The first problem is an issue in the theory of distributed computing. A common approach in formulating correctness proofs for distributed protocols is to start with a global state of the processes at some instantaneous point in global time, or else assume there is a total ordering of all the events among the processes. This use of simultaneity across space and Newtonian time violates relativity.

The second problem is a challenge from engineering the Internet. Currently, there is no mathematical model to help us analyze, understand and control the behavior of the Internet: no model to show how the number of hosts, the network topology, the protocol specifications, the traffic interactions, etc., affect its behavior; no model to guide the engineering community in designing its hardware and software architecture; no model to warn us how it might become unstable.

The talk is based on a paper available here

Biography:
Y.C. Tay received his B.Sc. degree from the University of Singapore and Ph.D. degree from Harvard University. He has a joint appointment with the Departments of Mathematics and Computer Science at the National University of Singapore. His main research interest is performance modeling (transaction processing, multimedia load-sharing, wireless access, parallel rendering and main memory). Other recent interests are: correctness in distributed and parallel computing, routing protocols for mobility support and ad hoc wireless networks, and application of data mining to online optimization. He is on the editorial board of The VLDB Journal.