Tech Talk: Frenetic: A Network Programming Language

  • Date  Time
  • Speaker
  • Location

Galois is pleased to host the following tech talk.
These talks are open to the interested public–please join us!
(There is no need to pre-register for the talk.)

Please note the unusual time for this talk,
it is on Thursday, 15 December 2011.

title:
Frenetic: A Network Programming Language

speaker:
Nate Foster

time:
Thursday, 15 December 2011, 10:30am

location:

Galois Inc.

421 SW 6th Ave. Suite 300,

Portland, OR, USA

(3rd floor of the Commonwealth building)

abstract:

The languages used to program networks today lack
modern features. Programming them is a complicated task, and
outages and infiltrations are frequent. We believe it is time to
develop network programming languages with the following
essential features:

  • High-level abstractions that give programmers direct control
    over the network, allowing them to specify what they want the
    network to do without worrying about how to implement it.

  • Compositional constructs that facilitate modular reasoning
    about programs.

  • Portability, allowing programs written for one platform to be
    used with different devices.

  • Rigorous semantic foundations that precisely document the
    meaning of the language and provide a basis for building formal
    verification tools.

.
The Frenetic language addresses these challenges in the context
of OpenFlow networks. It combines a streaming declarative query
sub-language and a functional reactive sub-language that,
together, provide many of the features listed above. Our
implementation handles many low-level packet-processing details
and keeps traffic in the “fast path” whenever possible.

bio:
Nate Foster is an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at
Cornell University. The goal of his research is developing
high-level programming abstractions and tools for building
reliable software systems. Specific topics of interest include
language design and implementation, data management, networking,
and security. He is the recipient of a PhD in Computer Science
from the University of Pennsylvania, an MPhil in History and
Philosophy of Science from Cambridge University, and a BA in
Computer Science from Williams College. His work on bidirectional
programming languages was awarded the Morris and Dorothy Rubinoff
award for outstanding dissertation from Penn in 2009.