Banca de QUALIFICAÇÃO: ALEX AUGUSTO DE SOUZA SANTOS

Uma banca de QUALIFICAÇÃO de MESTRADO foi cadastrada pelo programa.
STUDENT : ALEX AUGUSTO DE SOUZA SANTOS
DATE: 22/06/2023
TIME: 09:00
LOCAL: remoto
TITLE:

Towards an architecture for supporting computer network configuration based on natural language and device discovery

KEY WORDS:

natural language, home network management, device classification.

PAGES: 59
BIG AREA: Ciências Exatas e da Terra
AREA: Ciência da Computação
SUBÁREA: Sistemas de Computação
SUMMARY:

The internet is becoming increasingly accessible and available to a larger number of people. However, internet users nowadays are no longer enthusiasts or academics as they were in its origin; they are ordinary people. Consequently, users who need to manage a local network under their responsibility are not technically skilled individuals with knowledge of computer network Niche language. In the context of a residential local network, the growing presence of devices and the need to control network access demand solutions that are accessible and intuitive for common users who want greater control over their network.
However, home router configuration interfaces are currently limited, unintuitive, and unfriendly to the general public. Consequently, they hinder access control and customization of advanced settings as they require specialized technical knowledge. Moreover, the lack of standardization in these interfaces creates accessibility barriers for users. As a result, users face difficulties in effectively configuring their residential routers, limiting their ability to control network access and customize settings. The use of natural language, whether through voice or text, becomes an interface that presents an advantage in this context due to its simplicity and accessibility for this audience.
This work addresses this issue and proposes a layered architecture that utilizes natural language and automation resources to facilitate the configuration of residential networks, particularly focusing on device access control and device class control. This approach aims to eliminate the need for specialized technical knowledge from the user. To achieve this goal, this work reviews the state of the art regarding the use of natural language in the context of intent-based network configuration and contributes with a systematic mapping of the use of natural language for network configuration in the domestic context, along with existing strategies for device identification and classification in a network with heterogeneous devices. By using natural language processing tools facilitated by artificial intelligence and features such as automatic device identification and classification, it is expected to offer common users a more intuitive and efficient experience in configuring their residential networks.
To validate the proposed solution, a prototype in the Python language will be developed, establishing a hierarchy of device types and a hierarchy of configuration intentions, both compatible with the residential environment. The prototype will utilize communication between APIs and the SSH protocol to provide interoperability between the proposed layers.
The research results indicate that the use of natural language for network configuration is still underexplored in the residential context, particularly concerning automatic detection of device types present in the network. At this point, the proposed hierarchies and the necessary descriptors for the prototype's functioning have been established.

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
Presidente - 3139050 - ROGER KREUTZ IMMICH
Interno - 1874895 - RAMON DOS REIS FONTES
Externo à Instituição - Bruno Dalmazo - FURG