High-Speed into the Lecture Hall – DFN at TU Berlin

13 February 2026

Guest Lecture at TU Berlin: At the invitation of Prof. Dressler (front), Stefan Piger, Henry Kluge and Valentin Kirchner (from left) from DFN presented the X-WiN to students. Photo: Iven Jurk | DFN

What is a research network? How do core routers work, and how does one obtain an IP address? These and many other questions were addressed by Dr. Stefan Piger, Henry Kluge and Valentin Kirchner from DFN’s Network and Communication Services division in a guest lecture for students at Technische Universität Berlin.

At the invitation of Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Falko Dressler, head of the Telecommunication Networks (TKN) research group at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, they provided insights into the complex operations of the German National Research and Education Network X-WiN on 12 February 2026 as part of the lecture series “Computer Networks and Distributed Systems.” Their presentation covered the network’s overall structure, the architecture of its core routers, and included an excursion into the functioning of optical transport technology.

Topics that are usually discussed in theory during lectures were illustrated with practical examples from DFN’s day-to-day operations – including the core network node located at TU Berlin – offering students a hands-on perspective on how the research network operates in practice.

The lecture, held in the Audimax, was well attended. Particularly encouraging was the strong interest shown by the students, reflected in the many questions raised during and after the session. The lively discussions continued even after the lecture had officially concluded.

Our sincere thanks go to Professor Dressler and TU Berlin for the warm invitation!