Matthias Schlemmer, M.Sc.

As network speeds continue to outpace CPU performance, traditional host-based network stack processing becomes a critical bottleneck in modern systems. SmartNICs, with their programmable processing capabilities, enable offloading network stack functionality from the host to the network interface, potentially improving performance and resource efficiency.

This seminar explores recent approaches to network stack offloading on SmartNICs, focusing on different architectural design strategies. These include approaches that aim to transparently offload existing transport protocols (e.g., TCP) to the SmartNIC, as well as designs that rethink and restructure the network stack around SmartNIC-centric execution.

Key aspects to investigate include performance characteristics, CPU and memory utilization, programmability, and deployment complexity. The goal is to analyze the trade-offs between transparency, flexibility, and efficiency, and to assess how different design choices influence system behavior in high-performance networked environments.