CS 344: Topics in Computer Networks

Course Description

This class could also be called "Build an Internet Router": Students work in teams of two to build a fully functioning Internet router, gaining hands-on experience building the hardware and software of a high-performance network system. Students design the control plane in C on a linux host and design the data plane in the new P4 language on both a software switch and a high-speed hardware switch (e.g., Intel Tofino). For the midterm milestone, teams must demonstrate that their routers can interoperate with the other teams by building a small scale datacenter topology. In the final 3-4 weeks of the class, teams will participate in an open-ended design challenge. Prerequisites: At least one student in each team must have taken CS144 at Stanford and completed Lab 3 (static router). No Verilog or FPGA programming experience is required. May be repeated for credit.