Master’s Thesis Automated FPGA-based generation and measurement of bursty IP network traffic Background: Software-Defined Networking (SDN) is a hot research topic which enables automated and programmable network control. By spatially separating the control plane from the data plane of the network devices (e.g. switches, routers) and placing it in a centralized software controller, network management complexity can be significantly reduced. At our institute we explore SDN extensions which allow efficient utilization of processing resources in scenarios where network traffic is bursty and hence processing demands change rapidly. Goals: To quantify resource demands and to evaluate the benefit of our SDN extensions, we need a network tester which is able to generate and measure bursty IP traffic at line-rates up to 10 Gbps. The goal of this Master’s Thesis is two-fold: 1. Existing FPGA implementations (e.g. Open Source Network Tester) should be explored to determine if they are suitable to generate and measure the bursty traffic patterns. If required, an appropriate extension should be implemented. 2. To automate the tests, our testbed should be made configurable (setup of the cloud computing platform OpenStack) to provision the setup for our required tests. The generation and evaluation of the test traffic should be integrated in this platform. Required/Beneficial Skills:     General knowledge of the OSI model of communication networks Basic knowledge of hardware description languages such as VHDL and ideally first hands-on FPGA experience Proficiency using Linux, Python programming skills Self-motivated and structured work style, ability to work independently Contact: Andreas Oeldemann, M.Sc. Institute for Integrated Systems Technische Universität München Room N2137 Tel.: +49 (0) 89 289 22962 E-Mail: [email protected]