This book chapter is organized into two main sections. The first describes several biological approaches that have led to applications in computational and computer science for computer networks, with particular emphasis on the aspects of those biological approaches that are essential for capturing the method's benefit. This section also includes discussions on how or under what conditions biological methods do not apply to computer networks. The second section describes recent work done in applying biological methods at several levels of network operations. Several examples of historical and recent research are given in these sections to illustrate the ways in which biology has been used to inspire novel applications for computer networks.

Chapter Contents:

• 5.1 Introduction
• 5.1.1 Biological approaches
• 5.1.2 Network regimes
• 5.2 Biological methods as models for network traffic analysis
• 5.2.1 Information flow
• 5.2.2 Multi-organism coordination: flocking, swarming and social insects
• 5.2.3 Collective decision-making: thresholds, consensus and feedback
• 5.2.4 Autonomy and autonomic control
• 5.2.5 Redundancy, diversity and programmed death
• 5.2.6 Learning and cognition
• 5.2.7 A few notes of caution when applying biological concepts to computer networks
• 5.2.7.1 Equilibrium vs.homeostasis
• 5.2.7.2 Trade-off between optimality and robustness
• 5.2.7.3 Latent vs. expressed properties
• 5.3 Applying biological methods to network traffic
• 5.3.1 Identifying normal and anomalous network traffic
• 5.3.1.1 Machine learning
• 5.3.1.2 Swarm intelligence
• 5.3.1.3 Sequence analysis and other methods
• 5.3.2 Network design and management
• 5.3.2.1 Automaticity and autonomic control
• 5.3.2.2 Information exchange
• 5.3.2.3 Other methods
• 5.3.3 Routing
• 5.3.3.1 Autonomic control
• 5.3.3.2 Machine learning
• 5.3.3.3 Coordination without centralized control: swarms and social insects
• 5.4 Conclusions and future directions
• References

Inspec keywords: telecommunication traffic; computer network security

Other keywords: biological approaches; bio-inspired approaches; computer networks; network traffic security; network traffic resiliency

Subjects: Computer communications; Computing security management; Data security; Computer networks and techniques