Foundations of RDMA Programming

High-performance computing and modern data centers demand networking solutions that bypass traditional CPU bottlenecks. Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA) solves this by allowing direct memory transfers between servers, drastically reducing latency and CPU overhead. This text-based course guides you through the core principles of RDMA, teaching you how to write efficient network programs that bypass the operating system kernel. You will progress from fundamental concepts to structured code patterns, gaining the skills needed to develop high-throughput, low-latency applications. What you'll learn: - Understand the core architecture of RDMA, including kernel bypass, CPU offloading, and memory registration. - Configure and write programs using the standard ibverbs API for connection management and data transfer. - Apply one-sided (RDMA Read/Write) and two-sided (Send/Receive) communication paradigms. - Explore modern RDMA transports, including InfiniBand and RDMA over Converged Ethernet (RoCE v2). - Implement error handling, resource management, and basic security practices in high-performance network programming. The course starts with essential terminology and the physical architecture of low-latency networks before moving into practical code walkthroughs and design patterns. You will read detailed explanations of memory management, queue pairs, and completion queues to build a solid programming foundation. This course is designed for software engineers, systems programmers, and network enthusiasts new to RDMA. While familiarity with basic C programming and networking concepts is helpful, no prior RDMA experience is required. Start reading today to unlock the power of zero-copy, low-latency network communication.