Introducing hardware and software design exercises into the national networking curriculum

Stanford University, Stanford CA

Investigators

Abstract

EIA-0305729 Nick McKeown Department Electrical Engineering Stanford University "Introducing hardware and software design exercises into the national networking curriculum $460,000 This project involves the prototyping and deploying of a National Internet Infrastructure Teaching Facility to allow students at educational institutions across the nation to perform challenging new design exercises as part of their networking curriculum. The unique infrastructure developed by this project will permit students to design, deploy and test fully functioning packet switches (in software or hardware) that process real traffic in a real network. The infrastructure is based upon research done at this institution that produced test versions of two tools - the Virtual Router (permits implementation of software on a local computer that processes packets traversing a remote network), and NetFPGA (permits implementation of a packet switch in programmable hardware using an industry-standard design flow). The Virtual Router makes it possible to implement a software program in the user-space of any computer that processes packets traversing a remote network. This will permit students across the nation to implement an Internet router in user-space on their own computer that routes real traffic traversing a network inside the remote National Teaching Facility. In a similar way, the NetFPGA allows students to implement a packet switch in programmable hardware using an industry-standard hardware design flow. With this infrastructure at their disposal, students can investigate different design tradeoffs in packet switching by using realistic tools directly on real network flows. The project involves the development of fully functioning components of the Virtual Router and NetFPGA, their deployment and local testing in networking courses at Stanford, the distribution of the products for broader use, and, eventually, the creation of a National Teaching Facility that is accessible by all educational institutions.