Reading Review for Class 16
This class’s readings are:
Optional:
Your review should include both a summary of these papers, which
discusses
- the problem the paper addresses
- the paper’s solution
- the evidence the paper provides that the solution was
correct. Remember to keep in mind the historical context the
papers discuss.
Your review should also discuss, after the summary:
- whether the problem the paper solved is an important
one
- whether the solution was a good one
- whether the paper was fun or enjoyable to read.
- what questions you have about the paper, or which parts of the paper
(if any) you found hard to understand.
You should answer the above questions in about one sentence each. The
remainder of your review (about the below questions) should be about a
page (~500 words) long.
Finally, for this week’s papers, please reflect on the following
questions:
- The RMT model presents a specific hardware switch design that
supports programmability. In what ways is this specific implementation
similar to, and different from, the original vision(s) of active
networking discussed in the “Road to SDN” paper?
- What are some specific examples of practical functionality (beyond
those mentioned in the paper - i.e. regex, or payload manipulation) you
believe the RMT model couldn’t implement?
- The paper’s conclusion argues that “a box built from this chip could
metamorphose from an Ethernet chip on Tuesday to a firewall on Wednesday
and to a completely new device on Thursday.” Imagine you are a network
administrator; what practical benefit might you derive from this
capability for reconfiguration?