I am a Networking Researcher interested in High-Performance Networking, Network Security, Cloud, and AI.

In June 2024, I completed my PhD in the Networked Systems Group lead by Prof. Dr. Laurent Vanbever.

From July 2023 to October 2023, I visited the Berkeley NetSys Lab at the University of California, Berkeley, under supervision of Prof. Dr. Sylvia Ratnasamy and Prof. Dr. Scott Shenker.

From February 2016 to July 2016, I was a visiting researcher at the Broadband Wireless Networking Lab, under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Ian F. Akyildiz, working on Network Virtualization for 5G Software-Defined Cellular Systems.

Prior to joining ETH Zürich, I received a Master's Degree in Telecommunication Engineering (2018) and a Bachelor's Degree in Science and Telecommunication Technologies Engineering (2016), both from Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) in Barcelona, Spain.

I have also worked for organizations like Cloudflare (2023), armasuisse (2019), IBM (2017), and CERN (2015).

Dissertation

In-Network Congestion Management for Security and Performance

Advisor: Prof. Laurent Vanbever (ETH Zürich)
Co-examiners: Prof. Nick McKeown (Stanford University), Prof. Mohammad Alizadeh (MIT)
ETH Zürich. Zürich, Switzerland (June 2024).
  • 2024 ETH Medal for Outstanding Doctoral Thesis
Publications

Everything Matters in Programmable Packet Scheduling

Albert Gran Alcoz, Balázs Vass, Gábor Rétvári, Pooria Namyar, Behnaz Arzani, Laurent Vanbever
USENIX NSDI 2025. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA (April 2025).

Principles for Internet Congestion Management

Lloyd Brown, Albert Gran Alcoz, Frank Cangialosi, Akshay Narayan, Mohammad Alizadeh, Hari Balakrishnan, Eric Friedman, Ethan Katz-Bassett, Arvind Krishnamurthy, Michael Schapira, Scott Shenker
ACM SIGCOMM 2024. Sydney, Australia (August 2024).

QVISOR: Virtualizing Packet Scheduling Policies

Albert Gran Alcoz, Laurent Vanbever
ACM HotNets 2023. Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA (November 2023).

Reducing P4 Language's Voluminosity using Higher-Level Constructs

Albert Gran Alcoz, Coralie Busse-Grawitz, Eric Marty, Laurent Vanbever
EuroP4 2022. Rome, Italy (December 2022).

Aggregate-Based Congestion Control for Pulse-Wave DDoS Defense

Albert Gran Alcoz, Martin Strohmeier, Vincent Lenders, Laurent Vanbever
ACM SIGCOMM 2022. Amsterdam, Netherlands (August 2022).

SP-PIFO: Approximating Push-In First-Out Behaviors using Strict-Priority Queues

Albert Gran Alcoz, Alexander Dietmüller, Laurent Vanbever
USENIX NSDI 2020. Santa Clara, California, USA (February 2020).

Experimental Assessment of 5-10Gbps 5G Multicarrier Waveforms with Intensity-Modulation Direct-Detection for PONs

Samael Sarmiento, Albert Gran Alcoz, Jose A. Altabas, Marco Scalabroni, Salvatore Spadaro, Ignacio Garces, Jose A. Lazaro
IEEE PSC 2018. Limassol, Cyprus (July 2019).

Towards Wireless Infrastructure-as-a-Service (WIaaS) for 5G Software-Defined Cellular Systems

Albert Gran Alcoz, Shih-Chun Lin, Ian F. Akyildiz
IEEE ICC 2017. Paris, France (May 2017).
Talks

In-Network Congestion Management for Security and Performance

·    Microsoft Research Seminar. Vancouver, Online (September 2024).    Slides
·    ETH Zürich. Zürich, Switzerland (June 2024).    Slides
·    Cloudflare Research. Munich, Germany (November 2023).    Slides

Aggregate-Based Congestion Control for Pulse-Wave DDoS Defense

·    ABB Corporate Research Center. Baden-Dättwil, Switzerland (March 2024).    Slides
·    ACM SIGCOMM 2022. Amsterdam, Netherlands (August 2022).    Slides    Video

Weak-Origin DoS Defense

·    Cloudflare Research. Munich, Germany (January 2024).    Confidential

QVISOR: Virtualizing Packet Scheduling Policies

·    ACM HotNets 2023. Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA (November 2023).    Slides

Reducing P4 Language's Voluminosity using Higher-Level Constructs

·    EuroP4 2022. Rome, Italy (December 2022).    Slides

Programmable Packet Scheduling on Existing Hardware

·    Princeton University. ECE 539B. Princeton, New Jersey, Online (September 2022).    Slides

DDoS-AID: Automated In-Network DDoS Mitigation as a First Line of Defense

·    Armasuisse Cyber-Alp Retreat 2020. Gstaad, Switzerland (July 2020).    Slides    Brochure    Program

SP-PIFO: Approximating Push-In First-Out Behaviors using Strict-Priority Queues

·    Intel Corporation, Barefoot Networks. Santa Clara, CA, USA (February 2020).    Slides
·    Stanford University, Platform Lab Seminar. Palo Alto, CA, USA (February 2020).    Slides
·    USENIX NSDI 2020. Santa Clara, California, USA (February 2020).    Slides    Video

Towards Wireless Infrastructure-as-a-Service (WIaaS) for 5G Software-Defined Cellular Systems

·    IEEE ICC 2017. Paris, France (May 2017).    Slides
Beyond Research

Well2Go: Improving Public Health by Providing Safe Access to Water in Developing Countries

Albert Gran Alcoz, Sergi Caelles, Farah Hadad, Nikolai Tsvetkov, Tino Mendes, Blanca Rosàs
Challenge Based Innovation, IdeaSquare CERN. Geneva, Switzerland (2015).

SafeBeat: Enhancing Traffic Safety in Highway Vehicles Through IoT Technology

Albert Gran Alcoz, Clara Remacha, Marc Castillo, Marc Novillo, Anouar Dinar
Imagine Creativity Center. Barcelona, Spain (2017).

Yellow.Market: Online Marketplace to Foster Proximity Trade and Empower Local Businesses

Albert Villalobos, Alejandra Segón, Albert Gran Alcoz
Ideation process support, early stage. Barcelona, Spain (2019). Now: Magenta.Market.

Random5: The Sustainable Clothing Shopping Game to Save Water and Reduce Pollution

Albert Gran Alcoz, Tanzil Kombarabettu, Ganesh Poojary
App-development lead. Switzerland (2020-2021). Commissioned by ITSRANDOM5 SL (Barcelona).