Linux Kernel Developers'
Netconf 2004

Netconf is a yearly, by-invitation-only, Linux community conference running for the second year. The agenda has a clear focus on kernel level networking. Attendees are the main maintainers and developers of the Linux networking subsystem. Invitation is issued only 10-15 people who have provided significant contributions.

Due to the distributed nature of the Network subsystem development, contributors to the stack are located in different corners of the globe and coordinate security and bug fixes as well maintanance and new features via email.

Netconf is intended to be a face to face working meet to compliment those email exchanges. Problematic unresolved issues are trashed and bold new ideas are discussed.

  • Location : Portland, OR
  • Date : July 14-15, 2004

    July 14th:
    10:00am Arnaldo Carvalho de Melo
    "TCPfying the Poor Cousins"
    11:00am Harald Welte
    Netfilter Project plans for 2.7.x
    Packet filtering integration into routing cache.
    12:00am Lunch!
    1:00pm Rusty Russell
    TOE Offloading
    2:00pm James Morris
    (topic undecided as of yet)
    3:00pm+ Open discussion on days talks, especially for topics for which the given hour was not sufficient.
    5:00pm Dinner!
    July 15th:
    10:00am Stephen Hemminger
    Flavors of TCP
    11:00am David S. Miller
    Recent TCP developments.
    Things to do in 2.7.x
    12:00 Lunch!
    1:00pm Yoshifuji Hideaki
    Design of Mobile-IPV6
    Status and future plans of USAGI project
    2:00pm+ Open discussion, just like previous day

  • Sponsors : Intel, OSDL, RedHat,Inc.

  • Attendees (by invitation only)
    David S. Miller (davem@redhat.com)
    James Morris (jmorris@redhat.com)
    Arnaldo Carvalho de Melo (acme@conective.com.br)
    Rusty Russell (rusty@rustcorp.com.au)
    Stephen Hemminger (shemminger@osdl.org)
    Harald Welte (laforge@gnumonks.org)
    Yoshfuji Hideaki (yoshfuji@linux-ipv6.org)
    Soyoung Park (sparks_330@yahoo.com)

  • (Tentative) Topics :
    1. Remote DMA and Receive buffering strategies As networks are getting faster, and used for different usages like clustering and remote storage, the existing socket model is inadequate. What should the 2.7 strategy be?
    2. Early Traffic Control I don't know much about the background on this, but would like to see some discussion on improving the infrastructure for network filtering.
    3. Netlink extensions Various stuff has been kicking around to extend netlink. MPLS which is a way to control network links over netlink. Also, remote netlink for manageability. Also, netlink isn't used by most tools now, how to fix?
    4. Linux-NIC Total offload is a mistake in Linux environment, but how to make NIC's smarter in a Linux friendly way. Several ideas have been tossed around, but no resolution.
    5. Async I/O for networking Does anyone care? is it useful?
    6. WiFi 802.11 network stacks
    7. Potential issues for next-gen networking hardware.
    8. Futures

Slides and Photos from Netconf 2004

  1. TCP_OSDL - From DaveM
  2. Net 2.7 - From DaveM

References/Resources