The Indigenous SDN Routers

Location: Auditorium, ECE MP Building

*Title*                         : The Indigenous SDN Routers
*Speaker*                   : Ashwin Gumaste, IIT Bombay
*Venue*                      : Auditorium, ECE MP Building
*Date*                         : Tuesday, 19th March, 2019
*Time*                        : 04:00-05:00 pm
*Abstract:*

7 years ago, IIT Bombay entered into an agreement with state-owned PSU ECIL, to transfer technology for building commercial switch routers. This transfer of technology was the largest in the history of IITB. This talk gives a 360-degree view   of   the   design,   development,   tech  transfer,   deployment,   success   and shortcomings of the router story. We begin with the initial development of the routers – a typical telecom provider architecture and our proposed Omnipresent Ethernet   concept.   We   explain   the   concept   from   a   layman   perspective   and describe as to how it fits into the larger telecom network. We then discuss the development of the indigenous routers (called Carrier Ethernet Switch Routers).

The   first   prototype   led   to   the   development   of   three   routers a baby switch, a baba edge router and a grandpa core router. We shall discuss the architecture, the code and the management system of this family of CESRs. Thereafter I shall explain how the CESRs fit into the Indian telecom landscape through the initial deployment in telco networks. Subsequently I will describe recent  successes   through   user   testimonials.   I   will   also   talk   about   the shortcomings of our story. I shall conclude the talk with a glimpse of our current efforts     for     the     Min.     of     Defense, a    Terabit SDN Router that was recently built and launched. Here, I will highlight the proposed Bitstream contribution – as a more refined version of the original architecture, where even complex networking functions such as firewalls, load balancers are implemented within the router premise.

*Bio:*
Ashwin Gumaste is a Professor in the Dept. of CSE at IIT Bombay in Mumbai   where   he   has   been   employed   since   2005.   He   was   previously   the Institute Chair Associate Professor (2012-2015) and the JR Isaac air Assistant Professor (2008-11) at IITB. Ashwin has held positions with Fujitsu Laboratories (USA) (2001-2005) and has also worked with Cisco Systems (2000-2001). He was a consultant to Nokia Siemens Networks focusing on the emerging NGPON2. He has also held short-term positions with MIT (2008-2009) Lawrence Berkeley National Labs (2015) and Iowa State University (2009). His work on light-trails has been widely referred, deployed and recognized by both industry and academia. His recent work on Omnipresent Ethernet has been adopted   by   tier-1   service   providers   and   also   resulted   in   the   largest   ever acquisition between any IIT and the industry. This has led to a family of transport products under the premise of Carrier Ethernet Switch Routers. Recently Ashwin’s team has built a Terabit capable SDN Whitebox. Ashwin has 25 granted US patents   and   has   published   about   175   papers   in   referred   conferences   and journals. He has authored three books in broadband networks. For development contributions   he   was   awarded   the   S.   S.   Bhatnagar   Award   2018,  DST Swaranajayanti Fellowship   in   2013,   Dept.   of   Atomic   Energy’s-SRC   Outstanding   Research Investigator Award in 2010, the DOS’s Vikram Sarabhai research award in 2012. He was also awarded the IBM Faculty award in 2012, the National Academy of Sciences in India, NASI-Reliance Industries Platinum Jubilee award 2016, the Indian National Academy of Engineering’s (INAE) Young Engineer Award (2010) and INAE Fellow 2018.