Published: April 10, 2026
What’s new with FABRIC?
An update from Paul Ruth, FABRIC Principal Investigator
We look forward to seeing you at our upcoming KNIT next week, April 14-17, 2026, in Hawaii! Join the community for engaging discussions, collaboration, and hands-on exploration of FABRIC and next-generation networking. More information can be found below.
In this newsletter, you’ll find information about…
- KNIT12 Next Week
- The next FABRIC webinar focused on In-Network Computing at High Speeds
- Opportunities to collaborate with the FABRIC team
KNIT 12: Next Week
April 14-17, 2026 | Honolulu, HI
This engaging multi-day event offers a dynamic mix of activities designed to deepen your knowledge of FABRIC, connect with fellow researchers, and contribute to the future of this innovative platform.
Event Highlights:
- Hands-On FABRIC Tutorials: Participate in small-group sessions tailored for both newcomers and experienced users.
- Advanced Training Topics: Explore in-depth technical content to enhance your expertise.
- Plenary Sessions: Gain insights from expert presentations and open discussions.
- Experiment Showcases: Discover how scientists from diverse fields are leveraging FABRIC to drive groundbreaking research.
- Open Mic Sessions: Share your feedback and ideas to shape FABRIC’s future development.
Review the workshop materials before KNIT!
In-Network Computing at High Speeds | Stitching Together Innovation with FABRIC Users
April 21, 2026 3:00-4:00 pm ET
Join us April 21, 2026, from 3:00-4:00 pm ET for a deep dive into high-speed in-network computing on FABRIC, where researchers are pushing the boundaries of programmable networking at 100+ Gbps. This webinar will showcase how to leverage the Tofino ASIC on FABRIC to prototype and evaluate data-plane computation directly within the network. Rather than focusing on a single experiment, the session will provide a practical look at how high-speed programmable infrastructure enables advanced networking research and experimentation.
Attendees will walk through three key takeaways: (1) how to generate and manage high-speed traffic using packet generators to support 100 Gbps+ experimentation; (2) how to program and deploy custom data-plane logic on Tofino within FABRIC, including the unique workflows and considerations required for in-network computation; and (3) lessons learned for new FABRIC users, including tips for getting started, navigating available resources, and structuring experiments for reproducibility and scale.
The session will include a live demonstration of the experimental setup and conclude with guidance on how FABRIC’s programmable infrastructure can accelerate your own networking research. Whether you are new to programmable data planes or looking to scale experiments to high-speed environments, this webinar will offer practical insight into turning innovative networking ideas into working prototypes on FABRIC.
Educational Use: Using FABRIC for Class Projects
As a national research infrastructure for cutting-edge and exploratory research in networking, distributed computing, and science applications, FABRIC encourages faculty to use the infrastructure for teaching their classes. Training next-generation researchers to imagine and construct new computing and networking experiments at-scale is an important goal for FABRIC. FABRIC has created sample experiments and Jupyter notebooks that are ready to be used by networking and systems classes for instructors.
These experiments include basic ping, network routing, exploring IPv6, TCP analysis, traffic generation, setting up a web server, using Ansible to manage a set of nodes, etc. They are available via GitHub as well as the FABRIC Artifact Manager. Of course, you can create your own assignments for students to do on the FABRIC infrastructure. The FABRIC team provides support from creating an education project, enrolling students, to answering questions from instructors and students. More information can be found here.
FABRIC Ambassador Program
Share your expertise on FABRIC with the world
The FABRIC team is seeking ambassadors to join our team and spread the word about our platform. Ambassadors should have experience running experiments on FABRIC and guiding collaborators through the portal.
FABRIC ambassadors will help researchers learn more about FABRIC and its features through hosting annual local or virtual gatherings, presenting at KNIT workshops and community webinars, and identifying user success stories. Additionally, they will engage students in active learning on the FABRIC portal by leading tutorials and identifying opportunities for students to present their work. Program participants will get the first opportunity to test and approve new features on the FABRIC portal, receive discounts to in-person FABRIC events, and have their research promoted directly to our NSF program managers, as well as our community through social media and mailing channels. Complete our interest form.
FABRIC Office Hours
Connect and troubleshoot with leadership and support
We have made a new office hours system available from the FABRIC portal that allows stakeholders to directly book time with the leadership team and technical team members to discuss anything from the feasibility of their experiments, to software questions, to experiment security, to connecting new facilities into FABRIC.
Book an appointment on our scheduling platform.
Defining FABRIC
A glossary for common terms used by our researchers
Stitching – Originally coined from the GENI testbed, stitching is a FABRIC service that allows users to create links between experiments and facilities.
See the full glossary on our website.
Solicitations
Funding opportunities that encourage the use of FABRIC
See a list of all solicitations mentioning FABRIC on our website.
Do you have a project idea that would benefit from using FABRIC? The FABRIC team welcomes requests for Letters of Collaboration. To expedite the process, please contact us by filling out the form.
Upcoming Events
See a list of all upcoming events on our website.