Nick Feamster Provides Operators, Engineers, and Students with the Tools to Understand How the Internet is Glued Together
Who is Nick Feamster? Dr. Nick Feamster is known in the Internet Operations community as one of our primary source of great talent, research that pushes the Industry forward, a deep-dive investigation into security issues on the Internet, and constant exploration of ‘what we need next” to keep the Internet moving forward. Nick is also known to be generous and giving. He is not the academic investigator who walls up his work or holds things back. That is why the “master class” on Internet Networking is not a surprise.
Internet Networking is a Mystery
How the Internet is “glued together” is perceived as a “mystery.” Engineering professionals are perplexed how a massive network of networks are interconnecting all based on levels of trust that provide the vast majority of human online connectivity. Backbone engineers, Peering coordinators, routing specialist, Internet Security professionals, and other specialist are consistently sought after by companies and telecommunications firms. People ask how do they learn and build their Internet Networking skills? The most common answer is to “go watch the sessions from NANOG, RIPE, APRICOT, and the other NOGs.” NOGs are Network Operations Groups. This is where the Internet Networking professionals meet, consult, think, work, share, and collaborate. It is part of the interconnection fabric for all Telecommunications and the Internet. Some of these NOGs have special tutorial workshops based on the ISP Workshop Series (see The Service Provider Security “Bootcamp”). For many these are useful. For most, the volume and diversity of topics covered are intimidating. Enter “Nick Feamster’s Internet Networking Master Class.
Nick Feamster’s Internet Networking Master Class
Step 1 – Go to this YouTube Page and start exploring Nick’s Master Class.
In reality, there is not really a “Master Class” that Nick runs. The reality is that over time, Nick has worked to help his students. Over time he has amassed and a huge library of Youtube tutorials and classes on a specific topic for Internet Networking. Now we have a massive, detailed tutorial on a huge range of topics. Engineers can get into specifics that are often “assumed to already be known” in the NOG Workshops.
These YouTube “Master Class” sessions are the same materials Nick uses when teaching his students @ Princeton University. Network Engineers in all places of the world can not dig into …
- Why must Buffer Bloat be accounted in network designs?
- How does Leaky Bucket Traffic Shaping impact congestion control on our networks?
- What architects were really thinking when they came together to Design Goals for Network Virtualization.
- How do you Construct a Jellyfish Topology, one of the most common backbone architectures? Then contrast that to a typical Data Center Topology.
- Then see how Content Distributed Networks (CDNs) interact with ISPs.
- Finally, see why people are worried about BGP Hijacks was a walkthrough of the Kapela Attack on BGP.
The added benefit to all these sessions is the interaction Nick will have with Engineers all over the world. Post your question on Youtube, ping Nick via E-mail, and you will get an answer.
What’s Next?
Step 2 – Start Using Nick’s Master Class to start your journey to being an Internet Networking “Master.”
Nick’s archive is a gem for the Internet community. When I mentioned to Nick I was going to share his “Internet Networking Master Class” to the world, he laughed. All he was doing was trying to make things easier for people to learn how the Internet is interconnected so they can build better networks and do exciting research. If you find Nick’s Youtube Channel valuable (https://www.youtube.com/user/nfeamster/videos), please let him know, ask your questions, and share with others.