# Merlin: A Language for Provisioning Network Resources

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/1407.1199 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/1407.1199/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 4 Jul 2014.

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [Assistants, Not Architects: The Role of LLMs in Networked Systems Design](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.25506/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

This paper presents Merlin, a new framework for managing resources in software-defined networks. With Merlin, administrators express high-level policies using programs in a declarative language. The language includes logical predicates to identify sets of packets, regular expressions to encode forwarding paths, and arithmetic formulas to specify bandwidth constraints. The Merlin compiler uses a combination of advanced techniques to translate these policies into code that can be executed on network elements including a constraint solver that allocates bandwidth using parameterizable heuristics. To facilitate dynamic adaptation, Merlin provides mechanisms for delegating control of sub-policies and for verifying that modifications made to sub-policies do not violate global constraints. Experiments demonstrate the expressiveness and scalability of Merlin on real-world topologies and applications. Overall, Merlin simplifies network administration by providing high-level abstractions for specifying network policies and scalable infrastructure for enforcing them.