However, I believe that there is room for improvement in the available bandwidth algorithms that are the basis for rate-based transport protocols. My experience with bottleneck bandwidth algorithms is directly applicable to developing new, more powerful available bandwidth algorithms. Simulation Especially in the current vastly heterogeneous Internet, developers are only able to test their systems in a tiny subset of the conditions that exist in the real world. Consequently, many systems are fragile and vulnerable and only work well in a small part of the Internet. Simulation technology can help the development of fast, reliable, and secure network protocols and applications by presenting the system developer with far more heterogeneity than he or she could test alone.
Simulation running time is usually exponential in the number of parameters simulated.
New distributed computing services allow users to leverage the computing power of thousands of hosts on the Internet. These services could potentially speed up simulations or allow developers to simulate more parameters. Most current simulators concentrate on testing for performance. However, in many systems a larger problem is security, in particular intrusion and denial of service. A simulator may not be able to launch a sophisticated attack, but most exploited vulnerabilities result from incorrectly checked arguments and race conditions.