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SmartNICs, or programmable Network Interface Cards, are increasingly popular for their ability to offload complex networking tasks from the host CPU to a programmable hardware architecture. Despite performance benefits like lower latency, challenges arise in programming, debugging, and operation due to diverse hardware architectures and programming languages. At SMARTNESS, several researchers are investigating these challenges and the benefits, limitations, and opportunities of using these architectures. Based on the knowledge acquired, we decided to share our experiences with the local and international community, aiming to disseminate knowledge and encourage research in the area.

To this end, two tutorials about SmartNICs were proposed and accepted at the Brazilian Symposium on Computer Networks and Distributed Systems (SBRC) 2024 and at the IEEE International Conference on Network Softwarization (NetSoft) 2024. The tutorials aim to shed light on the design principles and operation of modern SmartNICs, covering hardware architectures, programming software ecosystem, performance capabilities, and open research challenges in this evolving domain. Furthermore, they include practical experience involving cutting-edge SmartNICs (e.g., Nvidia Bluefield, Xilinx Alveo, Netronome NFP).

The first tutorial was presented at SBRC 2024, under the title “SmartNICs: The Next Leap in Networking” , which was developed by the authors: Marcelo Caggiani Luizelli, Francisco Vogt, Guilherme Mendes Vieira de Matos, Fabio Verdi, Christian Esteve Rothenberg. Other authors: Weverton Luis da Costa Cordeiro (UFRGS), Alberto Egon Schaeffer Filho (UFRGS), Marcos Schwarz (National Research Network – RNP).

Meanwhile, the tutorial accepted at NetSoft 2024 will be presented during the congress from June 24th to 28th in Saint Louis, USA. SMARTNESS authors: Marcelo Caggiani Luizelli, Francisco Vogt, Fabio Verdi, Christian Esteve Rothenberg, Gergely Pongracz. Other authors: Weverton Luis da Costa Cordeiro (UFRGS), Alberto Egon Schaeffer Filho (UFRGS), Gianni Antichi (Politecnico di Milano, Italy).