Subject: NetFPGA tutorial with IETF in Anaheim

From: Aaron Falk <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 05 Feb 2010 09:52:05 -0500

Forwarding on behalf of the organizers.

-- 
Aaron Falk
Chair
Internet Research Task Force
http://www.irtf.org

------------------------------------------------

We are pleased to announce an upcoming NetFPGA tutorial co-located with
IETF in Anaheim, CA on March 21, 2010.

An open platform called the NetFPGA has been developed at Stanford
University. The NetFPGA platform enables researchers and instructors to
build high-speed, hardware-accelerated networking systems. The platform
can be used in the classroom to teach students how to build Ethernet
switches and Internet Prototcol (IP) routers using hardware rather than
software. The platform can be used by researchers to prototype advanced
services for next-generation networks.

By using Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), the NetFPGA enables new
types of packet routing circuits to be implemented and detailed
measurements of network traffic to be obtained. During the tutorial, we
will use the NetFPGA to determine the amount of memory needed to buffer
TCP/IP data streaming through the Gigabit/second router. Hardware
circuits within the NetFPGA will be implemented to measure and plot the
occupancy of buffers. Circuits will be downloaded into reconfigurable
hardware and tested with live, streaming Internet video traffic.

Attendees will utilize a Linux-based PC equipped with NetFPGA hardware.
A basic understanding of Ethernet switching and network routing is
expected. Past experience with Verilog is useful but not required.

Details about this event and registration information are posted on-line
as:
http://netfpga.org/tutorials/IETF2010/index.php

A list of future and past NetFPGA tutorials is available on-line as:
http://netfpga.org/php/events.php
---

If you have any questions or concerns let us know.

Thanks.
--Adam C.

---

From: Lars Eggert <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 8 Feb 2010 11:38:34 +0200

Hi,

On 2010-2-5, at 16:52, Aaron Falk wrote:
> Details about this event and registration information are posted on-line as:

the page says: "Cost of the tutorial is $200."

I'm trying to understand if this is a for-profit event. The reason is that I'm growing somewhat concerned with the recent trend to have more and more non-IETF meetings during or adjacent to the IETF weeks, which distract or at least take energy away from the IETF-related meetings (Sunday has always been *the* day to prepare for the week). But at least so far, those events have been free to attend.

If we're now seeing events co-located with the IETF that charge attendance fees, we're running the real risk of having folks get day-passes for the IETF in order to attend non-IETF meetings. (The cost of this tutorial is ~1/3 of an IETF registration.) Conversely, I don't see the chance of getting additional attendees into the IETF based on these side meetings.

Thanks,
Lars

PS: I do believe that the topic of this particular tutorial is interesting for a good chunk of the IETF attendees, myself included. My main concern is the monetary aspect, a minor concern the potential with taking energy away from the IETF week.