Rinku Shah
Assistant Professor, CSE department,
Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology Delhi
B-502 R&D Block
Delhi Okhla Industrial Estate, Phase III, New Delhi, India - 110020
rinku(at)iiitd(dot)ac(dot)in
I lead the Programmable Networking Lab (PNL).
I work at the intersection of networking and systems, with a strong focus on real-world applications in machine learning, security, and cloud computing. My current work explores the design and deployment of software-defined networking and programmable data planes to support emerging demands from ML workloads, telecom infrastructure, and cloud-native environments. I am particularly interested in building high-performance, flexible, and secure networking architectures that meet the needs of next-generation distributed systems.
For Prospective Students
I am looking out for highly motivated PhD students to contribute in the domain of networked systems.If you are passionate about pushing the boundaries of next-generation networking --- especially at the intersection of machine learning, security, and cloud computing, PLUS (a) you have a solid foundation in computer networks and operating systems, and (b) strong programming skills in C/C++ and Python, share your CV and transcripts with rinku@iiitd.ac.in.
If you are curious, driven, and an ambitious individual who thrives on solving hard problems and enjoys working in a collaborative and research-focused environment, you will be a great fit for my team.
Brief Bio
I am an assistant professor in the CSE department at IIIT Delhi since July 2021. I completed my Ph.D. in February 2021 from IIT Bombay, where I was advised by Prof. Mythili Vutukuru and Prof. Purushottam Kulkarni. After my Ph.D., I spent seven months as a Project Research Scientist on a Huawei project at IIT Bombay.
[CV] [Google Scholar] [Github (personal)] [Lab Github page]Funded Projects
- Project title: Programmable Observability
IBM Faculty Award [2025-2026]
PI: Rinku Shah
Grant amount: ₹2.25 lakh - Project title: Programmable cryptosystem for 5G telecommunication networks
C3iHub, IIT Kanpur [2023-2026]
PI: Rinku Shah, Co-PI: Praveen Tamanna, Sumit Darak
Grant amount: ₹32 lakh - Project title: Siegebreaker II: End-to-middle Covert Internet Communication Using Programmable Network Hardware (Deceptive Communication Strategies)
C3iHub, IIT Kanpur [2023-2026]
PI: Sambuddho Chakravarty, Co-PI: Rinku Shah
Grant amount: ₹28 lakh - Project title: FastCrypt – a smart security hardware for data centers
NIDHI PRAYAS Program at IIITD Innovation & Incubation Center (IIITD-IC) [2023-2024]
PI: Rinku Shah
Grant amount: ₹7 lakh
Teaching
CSE587 Networks for AI/ML Systems [Monsoon 2025]CSE638 Graduate Systems [Winter 2025]
CSE232 Computer Networks [Monsoon 2021--2024]
CSE567 Programmable Networking [Winter 2022--2024]
Current Students [alumni]
I have got the opportunity to work with some fantastic students.PhD
- Sumit Kumar (Oct'23)
- Aditya Peer (July'25)
- Palak Mishra (July'25)
- Sayantan Dasgupta (May'25)
- Kushal Mitra (May'25)
- Abhilash Jacob Mathew (May'25)
- Gour Krishna Dey (May'25)
- Tushar Gupta (July'24)
- Rohan Basugade (July'24)
Publications
2025Simulating LLM training workloads for heterogeneous compute and network infrastructure
Sumit, Arjun, Naman, Ramanjeet, Meet, Praveen, Satananda, Abed, and Rinku
ACM SIGCOMM NAIC 2025
[pdf]
Securing In-Network Traffic Control Systems with P4Auth
Ranjitha K, Medha, Stavan , Karuturi, Sri Hari, Dheekshitha, Rinku Shah, and Praveen Tammana
IEEE/IFIP DSN 2025
[pdf]
Detecting Manipulation to Table Rules in the Programmable Data Planes
Ranjitha K, Karuturi, Devansh, Stavan, Dheekshitha, Rinku Shah, and Praveen Tammana
IFIP/IEEE Networking 2025
[pdf]
Poster: Reducing Data Movement Tax for Serialization in Microservices
Siddharth Nayak, Vishesh Rangwani, Kartikay Dubey, Rajorshi Mondal, Tushar Gupta, Rinku Shah
ACM CoNEXT 2024
[pdf]
DL3: Adaptive Load Balancing for Latency-critical Edge Cloud Applications
Prashanth, Ranjitha, Ankit, Arjun Temura, Rinku Shah, Praveen Tammana
IEEE CNSM 2024
[pdf]
CoDel-ACT: Realizing CoDel AQM for Programmable Switch ASIC
Vedant Bothra, Aditya Peer, Vijay Kumar Singh, Mukulika Maity, Rinku Shah
IFIP/IEEE Networking 2024
[pdf] [slides] [talk]
In-Network Probabilistic Monitoring Primitives under the Influence of Adversarial Network Inputs
Harish S A, Shiv, Anibrata, Amogh, Praveen Tammana, Pravein Kannan, Rinku Shah
ACM APNet 2023
[pdf] [slides] [talk]
Microservice-based in-network security framework for FPGA NICs
Lasani Hussain, Mayank Rawat, Neeraj Kumar Yadav, Sumit Darak, Praveen Tammana, Rinku Shah
Student and Early Career Showcase @ IEEE/ACM CCGRIDW 2023
[pdf] [poster] [talk]
AccelUPF: Accelerating the 5G user plane using programmable hardware
Abhik Bose, Shailendra Keshav Kirtikar, Shivaji Chirumamilla, Rinku Shah, Mythili Vutukuru.
ACM SIGCOMM Symposium on SDN Research (SOSR) 2022
[pdf] [slides] [talk]
Implementing ChaCha Based Crypto Primitives on Programmable SmartNICs
Shaguftha Kottur, Krishna Kadiyala, Praveen Tammana, Rinku Shah.
ACM SIGCOMM Workshop on FFSPIN 2022
[pdf] [slides] [talk]
Packet Processing Algorithm Identification using Program Embeddings
S. VenkataKeerthy, Yashas, Sayan, Rinku Shah, Praveen Tammana, and Ramakrishna Upadrasta.
ACM APNet 2022
[pdf] [slides] [talk]
Leveraging Programmable Dataplanes for a High Performance 5G User Plane Function
Abhik Bose, Diptyaroop Maji, Prateek Agarwal, Nilesh Unhale, Rinku Shah, Mythili Vutukuru
ACM APNet 2021
[pdf] [slides] [talk]
TurboEPC: Leveraging Dataplane Programmability to Accelerate the Mobile Packet Core
Rinku Shah, Vikas Kumar, Mythili Vutukuru, Purushottam Kulkarni
ACM SOSR 2020
[pdf] [slides] [talk] [Code]
Cuttlefish: Hierarchical SDN Controllers with Adaptive Offload
Rinku Shah, Mythili Vutukuru, Purushottam Kulkarni
IEEE ICNP 2018
[pdf] [slides] [Code]
pcube: Primitives for network data plane programming
Rinku Shah, Aniket Shirke, Akash Trehan, Mythili Vutukuru, Purushottam Kulkarni
IEEE ICNP 2018
[pdf] [slides] [Code]
Professional Service
- 2025: Building a Secure & Empowered Cyberspace (BuildSec'25), Student Award Co-chair
- 2025: IEEE Conference on Local Computer Networks (LCN) , TPC
- 2024: Building a Secure & Empowered Cyberspace (BuildSec'24), Local chair
- 2024: Academic Research and Careers for Students Symposium (ARCS) , TPC
- 2024: IEEE International Conference on COMmunication Systems & NETworkS (COMSNETS) 2024 , TPC
- 2023: IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking (ToN), Reviewer
- 2023: Academic Research and Careers for Students Symposium (ARCS) , TPC
- 2022: ACM SIGCOMM Symposium on SDN Research (SOSR) , TPC
- 2022: ACM SIGMETRICS PerfNA Workshop , TPC
- 2020: The ACM SIGOPS European Conference on Computer Systems(EuroSys) , Shadow PC committee
External talks and tutorials
- Invited faculty talk at IndoSys 2025 . Title: Networked Systems Research @ PNL-IIITD.
- Invited keynote on Evolution of Ethernet Transport for AI and HPC Networking at MLNetSec Workshop colocated with ICDCN 2025, January 7, 2025
- Tutorial conducted on Linux Networking Basics at ACM Winter School on Full-stack Networking , December 18, 2023
- Invited Panellist for panel discussion on “Transitioning from student to a Research career", Maitreyee 2023, IBM Research - India, July 27, 2023
- Invited tutorial on "P4 for All" , Workshop on "SDN: Software Defined Networking Architectures and Applications" at IIIT Kottayam, July 17-23, 2023. Sponsored by SERB, Accelerate Vigyan, Karyashala. Tutorial contents are available here
- Invited talk at ACM SIGMETRICS PerfNA'22 . Title: Building programmable networks.
- Tutorial conducted on P4 Language and Programable Data Planes at COMSNETS 2022
Collaborators
- Abed Mohammad Kamaluddin, Marvell Technology, India
- Praveen Tammana, IIT Hyderabad
- Priyanka Naik, IBM Research Labs, India
- Sambuddho Chakravarty, IIIT Delhi
- Sumit Darak, IIIT Delhi
- Vinayak Naik, BITS Pilani, Goa campus
News
2025Sumit's first paper got accepted at the ACM SIGCOMM 2025 workshop on Networks for AI Computing (NAIC). Congratulations Sumit!
Awarded OSCP by IBM Research India for the project titled, Programmable Observability
2024
Dual degree student, Arjun Temura, starts summer internship at IBM Research India, as part of OSCP
Work primarily led by B.Tech students, Vedant and Aditya, accepted at IFIP Networking 2024
PhD student, Neeraj Kumar Yadav, receives prestigious TCS Research fellowship
2023
Extremely honored and excited to receive the prestigious invitation to Dagstuhl Seminar on Programmable Host Networking
Successfully hosted and conducted the ACM India Winter school on Full-stack Networking. Course material is available here
Selected to participate in ACM India Pingala Interactions in Computing (PIC'24)
Received Teaching Excellence Award for AY 2022-23
Shaguftha Kottur receives best MTech thesis award in the CSE department, IIITD.
Thesis title: Implementing ChaCha Based Crypto Primitives on Programmable SmartNICs
ACM India accepted our application to host ACM India Winter school on Full-stack Networking. School co-ordinators: Rinku Shah, Arani Bhattacharya, Priyanka Naik
BTech project students, Vedant Bothra and Aditya Peer, receive Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Excellence award. Project title: Realising AQM Algorithms on Programmable Network Switch Hardware