"My Favorite NANOG 91 Moment..."

NANOG 91 may have come and gone — but the memories will last forever!

NANOG asked community members + attendees what their favorite "NANOG moment" was at the 91st community-wide meeting in Kansas City, MO (Jun. 10 - 12). This is what they had to say.

Kate Gerry
Director of Global Networking — NetActuate

Favorite Moment: Keynote: TCP Terminates on the Floor: The Ebbing Tide of Networking Expertise w/ Corey Quinn.

One of the best moments for me at NANOG 91 was Monday's Keynote with Corey Quinn. The keynote subcommittee did an excellent job inviting Corey to present. His blend of comedy and technical insights had everyone laughing and engaged, setting a positive tone for the rest of the week. I hope future NANOG events include more light-hearted talks as well as, gameshow-style sessions like NANOG Jeopardy. It's important to balance the seriousness and keep the energy high at these meetings.

Steve Plote
Retired — NANOG Programming Committee

Favorite Moment(s): Keynote: Network Digital Twin w/ Kireeti Kompella +
A Simplified Data Center Network Protocol for Folded-Clos Topology w/ Nirmala Shenoy

To begin with, I liked the Keynote from Kireeti Kompella. If we combined the Digital Twin's concept with automation testing, it would go a long way to supporting updates to companies' networks with the level of validation of a change that Digital Twin could confirm. I also thought highly of Dr. Nirmala Shenoy's talk on MR-MTP... yes it is a research project. Still, it looks very interesting. As for exploring inside the data center for the CLOS architecture, it would be very simple, efficient, and cost-effective. It just needs some industry buy-in from the big data center players. They need to hear about it.

Mikael Holmberg
Distinguished Engineer - Member of the Office of the CTO — Extreme Networks

Favorite Moment: Keynote: Network Digital Twin w/ Kireeti Kompella.

I enjoyed many of the talks at NANOG 91 around various topics, but I found this one most interesting. AI is a hot topic discussed and presented at every conference you attend these days, so this one focusing more on the topic from a networking side was quite interesting. As a PC member, I was the moderator for this talk, allowing me to talk briefly with Kireeti about the topic. The Digital Twin naming referenced “rocket science,” and the term Digital Twin originates from NASA, where the definition of this refers to the attempt to improve the physical-model simulation of spacecraft in 2010.

Justin Ryburn
Field CTO — Kentik

Favorite Moment(s): Keynote w/ Corey Quinn + Beer N' Gear.

I thought Monday's Keynote w/ Corey Quinn had a great balance of snark and technical depth. He clearly understands the challenges the modern networking professional faces, which allows him to bring humor to the situation and entertain the audience. NANOG has a lot of great technical depth in its presentations, so a slight change of pace to be entertaining and humorous was great.

Beer N' Gear would be my second choice. I love the opportunity to share a drink or two and chat with many people about what they are working on, how they are solving challenges, what the vendors are building, etc.

Aaron Atac
Senior Network Engineer — Akamai Technologies

Favorite Moment(s):

My favorite moment was the NANOG 91 Hackathon on Sunday, watching participants from all over the world come and solve the challenges we created for them. It was an educational and social experience, and the feedback was positive. That was very fulfilling for me and I think as well for the rest of the committee.

My favorite talk was IETF WG for Inter-Domain Routing (aka BGP) w/ Susan Hares and Jeffrey Haas. I learned about several active efforts by the IETF IDR WG to progress the evolution of BGP. In particular, my favorite moment from this talk was learning about a new IETF draft for Send Hold Timer. The goal of this new attribute is to minimize the amount of stuck routes that have been intentionally withdrawn on the internet; which is a concern of mine and many others.

My favorite conversation was with Kireeti Kompella, one of the Keynote Speakers. I spoke with Kireeti on and off throughout the week about some challenges the industry is facing and solutions. Additionally, we were able to socialize and talk about general life too. It was a privilege to spend such quality time and conversation with a pioneer.

Patrick W. Gilmore
Independent NANOG Member

Favorite Moment: Lightning Talk: What is the FCC Doing with BGP and why Should NANOG Care?

I really liked Nimrod's Lightning Talk on the FCC sticking its nose into BGP. This is VITALLY important to NANOG and something you would not get from chatting with engineers setting up peering sessions. Nimrod did the community favor by both representing us (with others like Tony Tauber) at the FCC and by bringing it to the attention of the NANOG attendees. This is Important (with a capital "I"). My guess is that the FCC has the best intentions, but government regulators frequently do not understand what they are regulating, and the "Law of Unintended Consequences" frequently dominates the results. Or some large company with a large lobbying budget gets their way at the expense of everyone else. The community should be aware of and respond to the NPRM.

Steve Feldman
Principal Network Architect — Paramount

Favorite Moment: I have to say that the best part of the conference was Kansas City itself! The people were very welcoming, and there was great food and a lot to do near the hotel.

NANOG 91 videos are available to stream here. Pull up a chair + get comfy as hours of ground-breaking technical talks await!

Have your own NANOG moment by registering for our next meeting in Toronto (Oct. 21 - 23) here.