Kate Gerry, the Director of Network Operations at NetActuate, recently flew to Prague to attend the 16th Annual European Peering Forum (EPF). Sponsored by major European Internet Exchanges (IXes) including AMS-IX, LINX, Netnod, and DE-CIX, featured NIX.CZ as the host sponsor. As a member of each of these internet exchanges, Kate enjoyed the opportunity to meet NetActuate’s “peers” in person.
During the event, Kate had the privilege of meeting Ben Cartwright-Cox, the creator of bgp.tools, a remarkable tool that NetActuate proudly sponsors through BGP feeds and membership contributions. Kate was able to provide valuable feature requests to Ben, who in turn, was happy to implement them.
At the EPF, Kate attended many informative talks, including a presentation by Greg Shepherd from the University of Oregon. In this session, Greg shed light on Route Views and their ongoing journey with various software BGP daemons.
The event also featured a talk by Patrick Prangl from Arista, who delved into the realm of “Merchant Silicon for Service Providers.” Patrick’s presentation unveiled the latest chipsets that are entering the market. He emphasized how router vendors are increasingly adopting network chipsets from industry giants like Broadcom, particularly their Jericho product line. Furthermore, he discussed the roadmap for scaling network speeds from 400GE to 800GE and beyond.
Each morning’s presentations were followed by working lunches, giving Kate a change to meet one-on-one with representatives from our member IXPs, as well as other fellow network engineers and technologists.
Kate is looking forward to the 17th installment of the European Peering Forum, slated to take place in Vienna in 2024. NetActuate’s continued engagement with EPF reflects their commitment to fostering innovation and partnerships within the peering and networking community.