Fabian Ruffy
Email: contact@ruffy.euI am a Software Architect at Xsight Labs. Previously, I completed my PhD on programmable networks at NYU's Courant Institute, advised by Anirudh Sivaraman. I also serve as the Chief Architect and a member of the technical steering team for the P4 Language Organization, where my work includes maintaining P4C, the reference P4 compiler.
Before my PhD at NYU, I was a graduate student at the University of British Columbia (UBC) and a member of the Network, Systems, and Security (NSS) lab. At UBC, I worked with Ivan Beschastnikh on various aspects of datacenter networking.
My research interests lie in Software-Defined Networking (SDN) and network programming with languages like P4. I am passionate about simplifying network configuration and maintenance by applying advanced software practices, including formal methods, compiler techniques, well-defined configuration interfaces, and improved testing methodologies.
Some talks I have given
| Date and location | Details |
|---|---|
San Jose, CA, USA |
XASM: A Foundation to Program the X2 with P4
(PPT,
Video) P4 Workshop 2025 at OCP |
New York, NY, USA |
Static Analysis Tools For Network Device Software
(PPT, Dissertation PDF) Dissertation Defense *SIGCOMM 2026 Dissertation Award Runner Up* *NYU Courant Janet Fabri Prize* |
Irvine, CA, USA |
Incremental Specialization of Network Programs
(PPT) HotNets 2024 |
Milan, Italy |
Effective Testing of Programmable Network Devices
(PPT) Politecnico di Milano |
Philadelphia, PA, USA |
Effective Execution Models To Test Programmable Network Devices
(PPT) Distributed Systems Laboratory Seminar |
Online |
p4testgen: Automated Test Generation for Real-World P4 Data Planes
(PPT,
Video) P4 Workshop 2022 |
Online |
Exploiting the P4 DSL to Find Bugs in P4 Compilers
(PPT,
Video) CAV 2021 |
Online |
Finding Bugs in Compilers for Programmable Packet Processing (PPT,
Video) OSDI 2020 |
Online |
Finding Bugs in P4 Compilers (PPT,
Video) Network Programming Initiative |
Montreal, BC, Canada |
Iroko: A Data Center Emulator for Reinforcement Learning (PPT,
Poster) 2018 ML for Systems Workshop at NIPS |
Vancouver, BC, Canada |
Linux Network Programming with P4 (PPT,
Video) 2018 Linux Plumbers Conference |
Publications I am involved with
Papers
| Venue and links | Paper details |
|---|---|
| HotNets 24 Citation |
Incremental Specialization of Network Programs
Fabian Ruffy, Zhanghan Wang, Gianni Antichi, Aurojit Panda, Anirudh Sivaraman HotNets 2024: Twenty-Third ACM Workshop on Hot Topics in Networks November 2024, Irvine, CA, USA |
| SIGCOMM 23 Citation |
P4Testgen: An Extensible Test Oracle For P4
Fabian Ruffy, Jed Liu, Prathima Kotikalapudi, Vojtěch Havel, Hanneli Tavante, Rob Sherwood, Vladyslav Dubina, Volodymyr Peschanenko, Anirudh Sivaraman, and Nate Foster SIGCOMM 2023: 37th ACM Special Interest Group on Data Communication September 2023, New York, NY, USA |
| ASPLOS 23 Citation |
NNSmith: Generating Diverse and Valid Test Cases for Deep Learning Compilers
(*Distinguished Artifact Award*) Jiawei Liu, Jinkun Lin, Fabian Ruffy, Cheng Tan, Jinyang Li, Aurojit Panda, Lingming Zhang ASPLOS 2023: 28th International Conference on Architectural Support for Programming Languages and Operating Systems March 2023, Vancouver, Canada |
| HotNets 21 Citation |
Snicket: Query-Driven Distributed Tracing
Jessica Berg, Fabian Ruffy, Khanh Nguygen, Nicholas Lee, Taegyun Kim, Anirudh Sivaraman, Ravi Netravali, and Srinivas Narayana HotNets 2021: Twentieth ACM Workshop on Hot Topics in Networks November 2021, Virtual Conference, USA |
| OSDI 20 Citation |
Gauntlet: Finding Bugs in Compilers for Programmable Packet Processing
Fabian Ruffy, Tao Wang, and Anirudh Sivaraman OSDI 2020 - 14th USENIX Symposium on Operating Systems Design and Implementation November 2020, Virtual Conference, USA |
| HotCloud 20 Citation |
Multitenancy for
Fast and Programmable Networks in the Cloud Tan Wang, Hang Zhu, Fabian Ruffy, Xin Jin, Anirudh Sivaraman, Dan Ports, and Aurojit Panda HotCloud 2020 - 12th USENIX Workshop on Hot Topics in Cloud Computing July 2020, Virtual Conference, USA |
| HotCloud 19 Citation |
Jumpgate:
In-Network Processing as a Service for Data Analytics Craig Mustard, Fabian Ruffy, Anny Gakhokidze, Ivan Beschastnikh, and Alexandra Fedorova HotCloud 2019 - 11th USENIX Workshop on Hot Topics in Cloud Computing July 2019, Renton, WA, USA |
| NIPS
18 - ML for Systems Citation |
Iroko: A Framework to
Prototype Reinforcement Learning for Data Center Traffic Control Fabian Ruffy, Michael Przystupa, and Ivan Beschastnikh NIPS 2018 - Neural Information Processing Systems December 2018, Montreal, ON, Canada |
| LPC 18 Citation |
Linux Network Programming
with P4 William Tu, Fabian Ruffy, and Mihai Budiu LPC 2018 - 2018 Linux Plumbers Conference November 2018, Vancouver, BC, Canada |
| ANCS 18 Citation |
VNF Chain Allocation and Management at
Data Center Scale Nodir Kodirov, Sam Bayless, Fabian Ruffy, Ivan Beschastnikh, Holger Hoos, and Alan Hu ANCS 2018 - Symposium on Architectures for Networking and Communications Systems July 2018, Ithaca, NY, USA |
| ICN
2016 Citation |
A STRIDE-based Security Architecture for Software Defined Networking Fabian Ruffy, Wolfang Hommel, and Felix von Eye ICN 2016 - The Fifteenth International Conference on Networks February 2016, Lisbon, Portugal |
Posters
| ANCS 18 Citation |
VNF Chain Abstraction for Cloud Service Providers
Nodir Kodirov, Sam Bayless, Fabian Ruffy, Ivan Beschastnikh, Holger Hoos, and Alan Hu ANCS 2018 - Symposium on Architectures for Networking and Communications Systems July 2018, Ithaca, NY, USA |
Random Preprints
| PDF Citation |
The State of
Knowledge Distillation for Classification Tasks Fabian Ruffy, Karanbir Chahal |
Academic Things
Service
| ACM Symposium on Cloud Computing 2026 | Program Committee Member |
| ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology 2025 | External Reviewer |
| IEEE Transactions on Network Science and Engineering 2024 | External Reviewer |
| SIGCOMM 2023 Tutorial: Designing Networks for Testing | Organizer |
| SIGCOMM 2020 | Member of the Artifact Evaluation Committee |
| ICDCS 2019 | Subreviewer |
| ICDCS 2018 | Subreviewer |
Teaching Assistant
New York University
| Fall 2021 | CSCI-UA.0480-062: Computer Networks |
University of British Columbia
| Winter 2019 | CPSC 508 - Advanced Operating Systems |
| Fall 2018 | CPSC 317 - Internet Computing |
| Winter 2018 | CPSC 317 - Internet Computing |
| Fall 2017 | CPSC 210 - Software Construction |
| Winter 2017 | CPSC 317 - Internet Computing |
Miscellaneous
| SIGCOMM 2026 Doctoral Dissertation Award | Runner Up |
| SIGCOMM 2025 | SIGCOMM Networking Systems Award |
| P4 Workshop 2024 | Distinguished Contributor Award |
| P4 GSoC 2024 | Mentor and Organization Administrator |
| HotNets 2023 | Travel Grant Award Recipient |
| P4 Language Organization | Member of the Technical Steering Team (2023-2026) |
| SIGCOMM 2022 | Student Grant Award Recipient |
| Facebook Fellowship Program 2021 | Finalist |
| NSDI 2020 | Student Grant Award Recipient |