The Network as a Program with Nate Foster

Software-defined networking (SDN) transforms network management by treating infrastructure as programmable code rather than a collection of static, vendor-specific configurations. Nate Foster, a professor at EPFL and researcher at Jane Street, highlights how this shift enables higher-level abstractions, such as the Netcat framework, which aligns network forwarding with formal mathematical models like Kleene algebra. By adopting modern software engineering practices—including version control, automated testing, and formal verification—organizations can manage complex, large-scale networks with greater reliability and agility. Foster’s work on the Butane compiler exemplifies this approach, translating high-level policy specifications into concrete BGP configurations. This methodology bridges the gap between academic theory and industrial practice, allowing engineers to reason about network behavior, optimize for latency, and perform rigorous "what-if" analysis before deploying changes to critical infrastructure.