Effective Network Complexity : Managing and measuring complexity in networks

Architectural trends in the last decade are leading to increasingly complex control logic that can boost the number of services offered and make use of the Internet Protocols ubiquity. The result is a wider architecture and a larger feature set in the router. Managing the architecture of these networks necessitates a deeper understanding and quantification of this complexity. This thesis transgresses the boundaries of telecommunications into manufacturing and finance to address these issues from both a theoretical and practical perspective.