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Dr. rer. nat. Steffen Lindner

Oct 2019 - July 2024

Dissertation: "Advances for Resilient Real-Time Networks using Network Softwarization"

[DOI]

Contact: contactspam prevention@steffen-lindner.net

Personal website: https://steffen-lindner.net 

2014 - 2017
B.Sc. Computer Science

Graduated at University of Tübingen

2017 - 2019
M.Sc. Computer Science

Graduated at University of Tübingen

2019 - 2024
Ph.D. Student & Research assistant

Research assistant & Ph.D. student at the Department of Computer Science, Chair of Communication Networks, University of Tübingen. Graduated with honors (summa cum laude).

Today
Postdoctoral Researcher

Postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Computer Science, Chair of Communication Networks, University of Tübingen.

Research Interests

Software-Defined Networks

Software-Defined Networking (SDN) is an emerging architecture that is dynamic, manageable, cost-effective, and adaptable, making it ideal for the high-bandwidth, dynamic nature of today’s applications. This architecture decouples the network control and forwarding functions enabling the network control to become directly programmable and the underlying infrastructure to be abstracted for applications and network services. 

P4: Programming Protocol-Independent Packet Processors

P4 is a programming language for controlling packet forwarding planes in networking devices, such as routers and switches. In contrast to a general purpose language such as C or Python, P4 is a domain-specific language with a number of constructs optimized for network data forwarding.

Congestion Management

Network congestion in data networking and queueing theory is the reduced quality of service that occurs when a network node or link is carrying more data than it can handle. Typical effects include queueing delay, packet loss or the blocking of new connections. A consequence of congestion is that an incremental increase in offered load leads either only to a small increase or even a decrease in network throughput.

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Professional Activities

Reviewer for the following international journals, magazines, conferences, and workshops:

  • Journal of Optical Communications and Networking (2021)
  • International Conference on High-Performance Switching and Routing (HPSR 2021)
  • International Conference on the Design of Reliable Communication Networks (DRCN 2021)
  • IEEE Transactions on Network and Service Management (2020, 2022, 2023, 2024)
  • IEEE/IFIP Network Operations and Management Symposium (NOMS 2020)
  • IEEE Communication Letters (2024)

Teaching

Courses

Summer Term 2023

Winter Term 2022/2023

Summer Term 2021

Winter Term 2020/2021

  • Programmierprojekt (Supervising)

Summer Term 2020

Winter Term 2019/2020

  • Programmierprojekt (Supervising)

Summer Term 2019

 

Supervised Theses and Student Research Projects

Ongoing 

Concluded 

M.Sc. Design und Implementierung von Algorithmen für zustandlose Multicast-Weiterleitung auf einem 100G-fähigen Switch mithilfe von P4
B.Sc. Design und Implementierung einer generischen Control Plane GUI für P4-programmierbare Switche
B.Sc. Design and Implementation of a Simulation Tool to Evaluate the Scalability of Novel Stateless Multicast Encodings
M.Sc. Implementierung von Per-Stream Filtering and Policing für Time-Sensitive Networking auf einem 100G-fähigen Switch mithilfe von P4
M.Sc. Autonomous Integration of TSN-Unaware Applications with QoS Requirements in TSN Networks                                                             
B.Sc. Design and Implementation of a Web-Based Visualization Tool for Network Planning in Time-Sensitive Networking

B.Sc.

 Entwurf und Analyse eines Software-Projektes für das Tübinger Teamprojekt: Implementierung eines DNS Servers
M.Sc.

Design and Implementation of a RAP Prototype for the Centralized Network/Distributed User Model in TSN
M.Sc.

Implementation and Evaluation of an Alternative Best Effort Traffic Scheduler in the Linux Network Stack
B.Sc.

Comparison and Analysis of Data Center Routing with RIFT and OSPF

Project Work

KITOS

KITOS develops concepts for the management of TSN-based networks supported by artificial intelligence (AI).
In the project, the consortium partners develop AI algorithms that give networks the necessary dynamics and reliability for industry 4.0 scenarios and allow users to use them easily and without in-depth network or AI knowledge. Intelligent tools support decision making, allow more efficient use of resources and enable higher performance configurations. For active operation, the network management is secured against failures with AI-supported error detection and adaptation mechanisms.

https://kitos-projekt.de

CoMa (Congestion Management for Packet-Based Communication Networks)

In this project, new concepts for congestion management in packet-based communication networks, in particular for IP technology, are developed and investigated. Congestion management detects congestion in a network and resolves it. Challenges are delay limitation, high resource utilization, and fair bandwidth partition in case of congestion.

List of Publications

Journal Paper

  1. F. Ihle, S. Lindner and M. Menth: P4-PSFP: P4-Based Per-Stream Filtering and Policing for Time-Sensitive Networking, in IEEE Transactions on Network and Service Management, accepted
  2. M. Fluechter, S. Lindner, L. Osswald, J. Arnaud, and M. Menth: Autonomous Integration of TSN-unaware Applications with QoS Requirements in TSN Networks, (preprint), accepted for Computer Communications, 2024, Elsevier
  3. T. Stueber, L. Osswald, S. Lindner, M. Menth: A Survey of Scheduling in Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN), in IEEE Access, vol. 11, p. 61192-61233, June 2023, IEEE
  4. S. Lindner, M. Häberle, and M. Menth: P4TG: 1 Tb/s Traffic Generation for Ethernet/IP Networks, in IEEE Access, vol. 11, p. 17525-17535, Feb. 2023, IEEE
  5. S. Lindner, D. Merling, and M. Menth: Learning Multicast Patterns for Efficient BIER Forwarding with P4, (preprint), in IEEE Transactions on Network and Service Management (Special Section on Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence for Managing Networks, Systems, and Services), vol. 20, no. 2, June 2023, IEEE
  6. F. Hauser, M. Häberle, D. Merling, S. Lindner, V. Gurevich, F. Zeiger, R. Frank, and M. Menth: A Survey on Data Plane Programming with P4: Fundamentals, Advances, and Applied Research, (preprint), in Journal of Network and Computer Applications (JNCA), vol. 212, March 2023, Elsevier
  7. S. Lindner, G. Paradzik, and M. Menth: Alternative Best Effort (ABE) for Service Differentiation: Trading Loss versus Delay, (preprint), in IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking, vol. 31, no. 4, p. 1642 - 1656, Aug. 2023, IEEE
  8. D. Merling, S. Lindner, and M. Menth: Robust LFA Protection for Software-Defined Networks (RoLPS), in IEEE Transactions on Network and Service Management (Special Section on Design and Management of Resilient Networks), vol. 18, no. 3, Sept. 2021, IEEE
  9. D. Merling, S. Lindner, and M. Menth: Hardware-based Evaluation of Scalable and Resilient Multicast with BIER in P4 (preprint), in IEEE Access, vol. 9, p. 34500 - 34514, March 2021, IEEE
  10. D. Merling, S. Lindner, and M. Menth: P4-Based Implementation of BIER and BIER-FRR for Scalable and Resilient Multicast, (preprint), in Journal of Network and Computer Applications (JNCA), vol. 196, Nov. 2020, Elsevier

 

Conference Paper

  1. L. Osswald, S. Lindner, L. Bechtel, T. Heer, and M. Menth: Secure Resource Allocation Protocol (SecRAP) for Time-Sensitive Networking, accepted, IEEE International Conference on Emerging Technologies and Factory Automation, Sept. 2024, Padova, Italy
  2. L. Osswald, S. Lindner, L. Wuesteney, and M. Menth: RAP Extensions for the Hybrid Configuration Model, (preprint), in Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Emerging Technologies and Factory Automation, Sept. 2021, Vasteras, Sweden
  3. D. Merling, S. Lindner, and M. Menth: Comparison of Fast-Reroute Mechanisms for BIER-Based IP Multicast, (preprint), in Prodeedings of the International Conference on Software Defined Systems, June 2020, Paris, France.

Workshop Paper

  1. S. Lindner, D. Merling, M. Häberle, and M. Menth: P4-Protect: 1+1 Path Protection for P4, (preprint), in Proceedings of the 3rd P4 Workshop in Europe in conjunction with ACM CoNEXT 2020, December 2020, Barcelona, Spain.
  2. S. Lindner, M. Haeberle, F. Heimgaertner, N. Nayak, S. Schildt, D. Grewe, H. Loehr, and M. Menth: P4 In-Network Source Protection for Sensor Failover, (preprint), in Proceedings of the International Workshop on Time-Sensitive and Deterministic Networking (TENSOR) in conjunktion with IFIP Networking 2020, June 2020, Paris, France.

Other

  1. T. Eckert, M. Menth, S. Lindner: Stateless Multicast Replication with Segment Routed Recursive Tree Structures (RTS), Oct. 2023 
  2. S. Lindner, M. Häberle, B. Steinert, G. Paradzik, and M. Menth: P4TG: 1 Tb/s Traffic Generation for Ethernet/IP Networks (Demo), Networked Systems (NetSys), Sept. 2023, Potsdam, Germany
  3. H. Chen et al.: BIER Fast ReRoute, July 2021

 

Talks

  1. S. Lindner, D. Merling, and M. Menth: Efficient P4-based BIER Implementation on Tofino, IETF 115, November 2022.
  2. H. Chen, M. McBride, S. Lindner, M. Menth, A. Wang, G. Mishra, Y. Liu, Y. Fan, L. Liu, X. Liu: BIER Fast Reroute, IETF 111, Juli 2021.
  3. S. Lindner, M. Haeberle, D. Merling, and M. Menth: P4-Protect: 1+1 Path Protection for P4,  2. KuVS Fachgespräch Network Softwarization, Tübingen, Deutschland, April 2020.

Theses

M.Sc. Design and P4-Based Implementation of Scalable and Resilient BIER and BIER-TE for Large IP Multicast Networks, Master-Thesis, Eberhard Karls University Tübingen, Chair of Communication Networks, March 2019 (pdf)
B.Sc. Performance Evaluation of an Alternative Best Effort Traffic Class Offering Loss/Delay Differentiation, Bachelor-Thesis, Eberhard Karls University Tübingen, Chair of Communication Networks, August 2017