The ever-increasing demand for better performance, more functionality, and flexibility has given rise to radical new designs for networking infrastructure, that not only unleash exciting new opportunities, but also challenge conventional wisdom. This course aims to cover these recent advancements in networking research and industry. In each lecture, we will discuss one or two recent papers that propose, or use, unconventional new designs for network stack, network interface cards, or switches. Specific topics include software-defined networking, programmable switches, kernel-bypass networking, RDMA, smart NICs, and 5G Open RAN. The syllabus for this year's offering has been updated to also include multiple papers from industry that focus on network infrastructure for AI workloads.
Lecture time: Wednesdays and Fridays, 14:00 - 15:20
Credits: 4
Location: 3015 ECEB
Instructor: Radhika Mittal (email: radhikam @ illinois.edu)
Office Hour: Fridays 13:00-14:00, Coordinated Science Laboratory, Room 257
Reading assignments (25%): Students are required read one (and sometimes two) paper(s) before each class, and submit a short write-up on them.
Class participation (25%): Students are expected to attend classes and actively participate in the class discussions. They are also expected to briefly present a paper of their choice towards the end of the course.
Course project (50%): In groups of up to 2, students are required to do a research style project of their choice on a topic relevant to this course.
There will be no midterm or final exam.
More details about the assignments and project can be found under 'Assignments'.
Created using coursegen designed by Dave Anderson and Nick Feamster.
Last updated: 2026-08-21 11:50:39 -0500 [validate xhtml]