at wire speed inside the device itself. Also, it would reduce the amount of flow processing tasks currently delegated to specialized middleboxes. The underlying chal-lenge is: can we devise a stateful data plane programming abstraction (versus the stateless OpenFlow match/action ta-ble) which still

-taining the SDN-type ability to program and instantiate a desired network operation from a central controller. While programmability inside the switches, at wire speed and using platform-independent abstractions, of “any possible ” control function seems well beyond the OpenFlow capabilities, in this paper1 we

OpenFlow enables third-party programs to dynamically reconfigure the network by installing, modifying and deleting packet processing rules as well as collecting statistics from individual switches. But how can we know if such programs are correct? While the abstraction of a logicallycentralized

to all current switches we are aware of, including switches that implement the popular OpenFlow protocol. Overall, this paper delivers a design for a high-level network programming language; a novel, general-purpose compilation algorithm based on reactive specialization; a run-time system based on a SDN

Maestro is an operating system for orchestrating network control applications. Maestro pro-vides interfaces for implementing modular network control applications to access and modify state of the network. Maestro is a platform for achieving automatic and programmatic network control functions

identify representative packets that exercise code paths on the controller). We also present a simplified OpenFlow switch model (to reduce the state space), and effective strategies for generating event interleavings likely to uncover bugs. Our prototype tests Python applications on the popular NOX

1. Networking trends 2. QoS over data networks 3. Label switching 4. Gigabit, 10 Gb Ethernet, RPR 5. Storage area networks 6. IP over DWDM 7. Wireless 8. Voice over IP

identify representative packets that exercise code paths on the controller). We also present a simplified OpenFlow switch model (to reduce the state space), and effective strategies for generating event interleavings likely to uncover bugs. Our prototype tests Python applications on the popular NOX

Heterogeneous wireless sensor networks represent a challenging programming environment. Servilla addresses this by offering a new middleware framework that provides service provisioning. Using Servilla, developers can construct platform-independent applications over a dynamic set of devices

ii iv vTo my parents vi vii Acknowledgements I would first and foremost extend my whole-hearted gratitude to my advisors, An-drea Arpaci-Dusseau and Remzi Arpaci-Dusseau. Andrea and Remzi are the reason that I had the opportunity for this exceptional Ph.D. journey. To this day, I still re-member the moment when they took me as their student and the joy and hope in my heart. Andrea and Remzi have showed me what systems research is like and how much fun and challenging it can be. Before this journey with them, I had always liked and believed in the beauty of mathematics and theory. My initial interest in systems research happened when I took Remzi’s Advanced Operating Systems