Oliver Gurka

While pursuing his master’s degree at Brno University of Technology, Oliver is also a part-time researcher at CESNET, the Czech National Research and Education Network. His work centres on boosting the performance of stateful network applications and developing smart caching techniques.

Oliver is currently developing a versatile FPGA accelerator designed to handle stateful network processing at speeds of up to 400 Gbps, utilising external memory for record storage. This concept originated in his bachelor’s thesis and has since evolved into a patent-pending solution.

Lightning Talk at TNC25

Lightning-Fast Stateful Applications on FPGA

Stateful network applications such as firewalls, VPNs, and intrusion detection systems depend on frequent memory access. However, traditional computer architectures struggle to scale effectively under the high throughput demands of modern networks. The primary bottleneck is unsurprising - high memory latency and limited memory bandwidth, which greatly constrain overall performance.

By leveraging FPGA acceleration, we can revolutionise the architecture of high-performance stateful applications, achieving unmatched scalability, efficiency, and real-time processing capabilities. For research networks, ISPs, and cybersecurity infrastructures, this means faster, more adaptive systems capable of handling ever-growing network demands with minimal latency and maximal flexibility.

Oliver's participation in the Future Talent Programme 2025 was supported by CESNET.