The Networked Systems Group (NSG) is a research group in the Department of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering (D-ITET) at ETH Zürich led by Prof. Laurent Vanbever.
Our research revolves around computer networks and complex network management problems. Our overarching goal is to make current and future network infrastructure—especially the Internet—easier to design, understand and operate.
We are currently active in multiple areas including: network verification, network programmability, Internet routing, and network security. Most of our projects are multidisciplinary and involve recent advances in programming languages, algorithmics, and machine learning.
In June 2024, we launched NetFabric, an ETH spin-off which aims at building the next-generation of network observability platform.
If you would like to learn more about our recent research, please check out:
- Our publications and research areas;
- Our activity report (2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020);
- Our 1-page research statement.
Our flagship lecture is Communication Networks which we offer in the spring. We also offer a master-level lecture on Advanced Topics in Communication Networks in the fall alongside with a seminar. Check our courses page for more information.
If you are a ETH student interested in doing a project with us, make sure to check out our theses page. We also offer projects in collaboration with NetFabric.
News
Who you gonna call when BGP misbehaves? Our paper introducing GhostBuster, a runtime system that catches BGP bugs slipping past static verification—including real ones lurking in production routers—has just been accepted to SIGCOMM'26. As usual, stay tuned for the details!
Pascal’s work on Why Measuring Embodied Impacts of Internet Routers is Important but Hard received the SPS Best Poster Award at the recent Sustainability Conference for Responsible Research Computing. Congratulations!
Our group welcomes Pascal as new team member. Pascal started exploring sustainable networking with us during a research internship, and eventually decided to carry on the journey with doctoral studies on the topic. Welcome!
As someone who spends a lot of time preparing talks, I’ve always been frustrated by how little visibility they get. In an attempt to (hopefully) change that, I’ve put together an easy-to-browse list of all my talks here. Check it out!
Benjamin and Ioannis recently started their PhD journey!
Benjamin decided to continue with us after a student project and a succesful internship.
Ioannis is freshly arrived at ETH after completing his Master’s degree from the National Technical University of Athens.
We are thrilled they chose to stay with NSG for a few more years.
Welcome!
Hard to believe that it has been 10 years already! We managed to celebrate the milestone during an action-packed afternoon/evening with almost all alumnis, which now span over three generations of Ph.D. students! This, of course, called for a great group picture.
Check out my intro slides for the event:
Our group welcomes Ayush as new team member. Ayush earned his PhD from NUS under the supervision of Ben Leong and now joins us for his post-doc, focusing on creative solutions to the problems induced by CCA heterogeneity on the Internet. Welcome!
We have plenty of interesting MsC-level projects offered in collaboration with NetFabric, our startup active in the field of network observability. Check them out here!
Continuing the tradition: here’s our 2024 group activity report.
2024 has been incredibly diverse and full of milestones: from teaching a 2-week course at Ashesi University in Ghana to launching NetFabric, our first startup which already employs 7 amazing team members! Meanwhile though, our research has not taken a back seat—we even won several awards—and neither have our teaching activities.
Dive into the report
Our group welcomes Sushovan as new team member. Sushovan earned his PhD from Rice University under the supervision of Eugene Ng and now joins us for his post-doc, focusing on energy-efficient optical network architectures. Welcome!
