CHI-NOG 13 Agenda Published
We’re excited to announce the CHI-NOG 13 agenda! As in years past, we have speakers coming in to present the latest technical trends in networking right here in Chicago. For detailed agenda please see CHI-NOG 13 Agenda.
This year, we’re extending the program to two days. We heard your feedback that you wanted more hands-on content, so Wednesday, May 27th will be a full day of workshop and lab sessions, while Thursday, May 28th will be our regular conference day. Attendees registering for the full conference will have access to the workshops (session registration is required), and we’re also offering workshop-only registration for those who prefer that option.
Full workshop details are coming soon, but here’s a sneak preview: expect hands-on labs covering RPKI, DNSSEC, and Intend based automation for AI Fabrics. Stay tuned for the full workshop schedule.
We’re thrilled to have Jeff Doyle on the agenda this year. Jeff is one of the most recognized voices in networking, author of the classic Routing TCP/IP and OSPF and IS-IS, co-author of Network Programmability and Automation Fundamentals, co-host of Between 0x2 Nerds, and a network architect who has designed large-scale service provider networks across 26 countries on six continents. He’s also a founder of the IPv6 Forum and served on the first advisory board for the Network Automation Forum. Jeff will present the NAF’s Network Automation Framework, a structured approach designed to help operators move beyond simple scripting and think holistically about what they want to accomplish, how to get there, and what they might be overlooking.
AI and the Data Center Network
AI networking is a major theme this year. Tyler Conrad from Arista will provide a roadmap for engineers transitioning from traditional data center architectures to specialized AI networking environments, covering topology design, congestion control, load balancing, and operational visibility. Mike McBride (Futurewei), longtime IETF PIM WG Chair, will explore how IP multicast and related group communication paradigms can solve the data distribution challenges that come with AI’s distributed training, inference, and Mixture-of-Experts architectures. And Taran Deshpande from Cisco will demo an AI lab assistant that takes a natural-language prompt and builds a complete virtual network with topology, configs, orchestration, and validation, all without manual intervention.
Routing Security and Internet Measurement
Bryton Herdes from Cloudflare will dig into the edge cases that still allow prefix hijacks even on networks with ROV deployed, showing how long-prefix announcements and certain filtering practices create gaps in what many assume is solid protection. Aaron Atac (Coreweave) will walk through the internet measurement and observability tools available to operators today, from RPKI validation and BGP archives to active measurement platforms and geolocation sources.
DNS, Open Source, and Community Infrastructure
David Huberman from ICANN will present the KINDNS initiative, a set of voluntary, concrete DNS security practices that gives operators a clear baseline, whether they think of themselves as “DNS operators” or not. Steve Ulrich (nexthop.ai) will tackle the uncomfortable middle ground between the hype and reality of open network operating systems, expanding on his NANOG 92 lightning talk. And Matt Griswold will introduce Open Pipes, a new nonprofit building community-owned Internet Exchanges starting right here in Chicago with Chicago Open Pipes (ChOP).
Research and Regional Innovation
Chicago continues to be a hub for cutting-edge networking research. Joaquin Chung from Argonne National Laboratory will present InterQnet, a multidisciplinary project advancing scalable quantum communications through heterogeneous network design and full-stack co-development. As the Chicago region builds out its position as a leader in quantum networking, with efforts spanning Argonne, Fermilab, and the University of Chicago, this talk offers a look at what’s coming as quantum networks move from small-scale experiments toward real metropolitan-scale infrastructure.
Traffic Engineering, Optics and IPv6
Colby Barth, Distinguished Engineer at HPE/Juniper, will present on DAG-based Multipath Traffic Engineering (MPTE), an emerging approach that combines the strengths of traditional traffic engineering with advanced load-balancing capabilities. With over 25 years of experience designing and operating IP/MPLS networks, multiple RFCs, and over 35 patents to his name, Colby will introduce the MPTE architecture and its foundational constructs, MPTED Tunnels and MPTED Junctions, and show how they enable flexible, scalable traffic distribution across diverse forwarding planes. Phil Bedard from Cisco will cover the deployment and management of digital coherent optics, which have exploded in use over the last six years, with a focus on the techniques and standards for managing these increasingly complex pluggables. And Nick Buraglio from ESnet will make the case for IPv6, with global IPv6 traffic now consistently peaking above the 50% mark, and federal mandates driving adoption, the advantages of moving to the current-generation internet protocol are stronger than ever.
Network Automation and Career Growth
Rob Martin from Arista will tackle the human side of automation, the professional and psychological shift from being the team’s go-to scripter to a strategic leader who scales impact through others.
Last year’s event sold out, so don’t wait. Register today to secure your spot at CHI-NOG 13 at https://13.chinog.org!