NSF Workshop on Programmable Networks

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Programmable networks---networks whose functionality can be changed by a network operator---are emerging to fundamentally change the way computer networks are designed, built, and managed. Programmable networks have been a holy grail for networking research, and such devices (such as network interface cards and switches) as well as new advanced network applications are coming to market. Due to the requirement of providing fast packet processing, programmable network devices have a limited amount of high-speed memory and can perform only a small amount of computation on every packet. This award supports a workshop addressing a grand challenge in this space: to rethink the full software stack of networks, from developing new algorithms and data structures to efficiently realize network applications with limited resources, to developing high-level programming frameworks to simplify programming. This requires the efforts of multiple research communities: networking, algorithms, programming languages, and computer architecture.This workshop aims to bring together these different research communities to survey the state of the art in programmable networks, to identify key research challenges going forward, and to exchange ideas. The primary goal is to stimulate discussion between different communities engaged in research on programmable networks and to broaden the research community working on programmable networks. As a concrete output from the workshop, participants will produce a report that will be published as an editorial in ACM SIGCOMM's online magazine, Computer Communication Review. This report will cohesively summarize the workshop's discussions, outline a set of research themes for future research in the area, and make recommendations on infrastructure support to aid research in programmable networks.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.