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Episode 38: Building and testing network stacks with Rama.
In this Protocol Shorts episode of Netstack.fm, Glen talks with Brecht Stamper about Rama, the modular Rust framework for building clients, servers, proxies, and other network systems. Brecht shares how he came to understand Rama’s core idea that everything is a service, and why that simple input to output contract makes it easier to compose complex stacks without constantly inventing new traits or glue code.

They also discuss how Rama helps with testing, including gRPC client and server logic without spinning up real HTTP or TCP infrastructure. The conversation then moves into practical production lessons, such as gRPC latency caused by TCP_NODELAY, the role of OpenTelemetry and logging, and how Rama can provide better abstractions while still allowing low level control.

Later in the episode, Glen and Brecht explore Rama’s evolving extension system, including the move toward append only extensions, clearer separation between request and connection state, and support for complex scenarios such as HTTP/2 streams and protocol upgrades.

They close with thoughts on where Rama is heading next, including HTTP/3, QUIC, better developer tooling, performance work, and making more hard won network fixes available to everyone through the framework.

Learn more

https://ramaproxy.org/ — Rama homepage: modular Rust framework for proxies, clients, servers, inspection, tunneling, and network diagnostics.
https://ramaproxy.org/book/ — Rama book: broader introduction to Rama and its approach to fine grained programmable control over network stacks.
https://ramaproxy.org/docs/rama/index.html — Rama API documentation: generated Rust docs for the main Rama crate.
https://github.com/plabayo/rama — Rama source code on GitHub.
Chapters
00:00 Intro
00:48 Introduction to Rama and Brecht's Role
02:46 Understanding Services in Rama
08:22 Testing and Mocking in Rama
10:23 gRPC and TCP Configuration Issues
15:35 Evolution of Extensions in Rama
24:58 Building with Rama and Rama's Horizon
31:52 Outro
Netstack.FM
More information: https://netstack.fm/#episode-38
Join our Discord: https://discord.gg/29EetaSYCD
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Music for this episode was composed by Dj Mailbox. Listen to his music at https://on.soundcloud.com/4MRyPSNj8FZoVGpytj

episode 37: dial9: from black box to insight in Tokio.

In this episode of Netstack.fm, Glen talks with Jess Izen and Russell Cohen from Amazon about Dial9, a new tool for understanding what’s happening inside Rust and Tokio applications. They explain how it captures events from different layers of your system and puts them into a single timeline, making it much easier to debug tricky performance issues and unexpected behavior.

They also share how Dial9 came out of real debugging challenges at Amazon, where engineers often had to rely on complex, low level tools. The goal with Dial9 is to make those kinds of insights more accessible, so developers can diagnose problems faster and with less guesswork, while the tool continues to evolve with new features and improvements.

Learn more:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTlThfOcslM — TokioConf 2026 - Lightning Talk: dial9: WTF is Tokio actually doing? by Russell Cohen
https://tokio.rs/blog/2026-03-18-dial9 — Introducing dial9: a flight recorder for Tokio
https://github.com/dial9-rs/dial9-tokio-telemetry — source code (Tokio Telemetry you can run in production)
https://github.com/dial9-rs/dial9-tokio-telemetry/blob/main/dial9-trace-format/SPEC.md — trace format spec
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kr0RYMu57kU — demo walkthrough (slightly outdated)
https://github.com/dial9-rs/dial9-tokio-telemetry/blob/main/dial9-tokio-telemetry/examples/production_use.rs — example

Rama

If you like this podcast you might also like our modular network framework in Rust: https://ramaproxy.org

Chapters

00:00 Intro
02:01 Meet Russell and Jess
05:27 The Mission of the Rust Team at Amazon
11:47 Integration with OpenTelemetry and Tracing
13:49 The Evolution of Dial 9
17:17 Comparing Dial 9 with Existing Tools
20:07 Continue exploring history and development and UX of Dial9
33:47 Building Self-Serve Solutions
36:22 perf sched
38:30 Task Dumps
41:17 Dial 9: almost a free lunch
43:00 Cross-Platform Considerations for Dial 9
46:20 Future Features and Improvements for Dial 9
50:20 Dial 9 usage today
54:31 Considerations before using Dial 9
01:03:05 Getting Started with Dial 9
01:05:30 Outro

Netstack.FM

More information: https://netstack.fm/#episode-37
Join our Discord: https://discord.gg/29EetaSYCD
Reach out to us: hello@netstack.fm

Music for this episode was composed by Dj Mailbox. Listen to his music at https://on.soundcloud.com/4MRyPSNj8FZoVGpytj

Episode 36 – Protocol Shorts: WireGuard

In this Protocol Shorts episode of netstack.fm, we explore WireGuard, a modern and lightweight VPN protocol. Glen explains what makes it different from traditional VPNs and why its simplicity and security model are gaining attention among developers.

The episode also highlights real world use cases and why VPNs like WireGuard remain essential for securely accessing private resources.

Learn more:

https://www.wireguard.com/ — official website of WireGuard
https://www.wireguard.com/papers/wireguard.pdf — WireGuard whitepaper
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OipNNLHLphw —
Black Hat USA 2018 - WireGuard Next Generation Secure Network Tunnel

Rama

If you like this podcast you might also like our modular network framework in Rust: https://ramaproxy.org

Chapters

00:00 Intro
00:18 Introduction to WireGuard
01:41 WireGuard Properties
03:24 Why WireGuard?
07:43 Current Use Cases and Adoption of WireGuard
11:42 Get started with WireGuard
14:37 Final Words
15:17 Outro

Netstack.FM

More information: https://netstack.fm/#episode-36
Join our Discord: https://discord.gg/29EetaSYCD
Reach out to us: hello@netstack.fm

Music for this episode was composed by Dj Mailbox.
Listen to his music at https://on.soundcloud.com/4MRyPSNj8FZoVGpytj.

Episode 35 – OpenTelemetry, eBPF and Metoro (Ep 3 Remastered).

In this remastered episode, Chris Batterbee, co-founder of Metoro, discusses the importance of observability in modern software systems, particularly in Kubernetes environments. He explains how Metoro leverages eBPF technology to simplify observability by automatically instrumenting applications. The discussion also covers the integration of OpenTelemetry, the challenges faced by developers in implementing observability, and the potential of AI in diagnosing issues. Chris shares insights from his experience with Y Combinator and the competitive landscape of observability tools, emphasizing the unique position of Metoro in the market.

Learn more about OpenTelemetry, eBPF and Metoro:

https://opentelemetry.io/
https://ebpf.io/
https://metoro.io/
metoro demo: https://demo.us-east.metoro.io/guardian?startEnd=&service=
OpenTelemetry metric examplar: https://opentelemetry.io/docs/specs/otel/metrics/data-model/#exemplars

Rama

If you like this podcast you might also like our modular network framework in Rust: https://ramaproxy.org

Chapters

00:00 Intro
00:34 Into to Chris Battarbee
02:36 Understanding eBPF and Its Role in Observability
10:13 Integrating OpenTelemetry with eBPF
15:05 Challenges and Experiences with OpenTelemetry
22:28 Future of eBPF and OpenTelemetry in Different Environments
27:53 YCombinator Experience
29:31 Insights from Y Combinator Experience
32:31 Networking and Community in Y Combinator
34:43 Raising Funds Post-Y Combinator
35:39 Post-Y Combinator Relationship with YC
36:27 OpenTelemetry Pain Points
38:31 The Future of OpenTelemetry and Standards
39:47 Competition with Major Cloud Providers
41:40 Understanding eBPF and Its Challenges
43:24 Prometheus vs. OpenTelemetry
44:40 AI Integration in Telemetry
45:36 Metoro
49:03 Profiling
51:43 Metoro Payment Models
53:57 Customer Engagement and Support
55:09 Outro

Netstack.FM

More information: https://netstack.fm/#episode-35
Join our Discord: https://discord.gg/29EetaSYCD
Reach out to us: hello@netstack.fm

Music for this episode was composed by Dj Mailbox. Listen to his music at https://on.soundcloud.com/4MRyPSNj8FZoVGpytj.

Episode 34 — Tokio with Carl Lerche (Ep 5 Remastered).

In this remastered episode, Glen speaks with Carl Lerche, the creator and maintainer of the Tokio Runtime, about his journey into technology, the evolution of programming languages, and the impact of Rust on the software development landscape. They discuss the rise of async programming, the development of networking libraries, and the future of Rust in infrastructure. Carl shares insights on the creation of the Bytes crate, the implications of io_uring, and his role at Amazon. The conversation also touches on the upcoming Tokio conference and the introduction of Toasty, a new query engine for Rust.

Learn more:

https://tokio.rs/
https://www.tokioconf.com/
https://github.com/carllerche

Rama

If you like this podcast you might also like our modular network framework in Rust: https://ramaproxy.org

Chapters

00:00 Intro
01:26 Introduction to Carl and His Journey in Tech
16:30 How Carl got into Rust
21:18 How Mio/Tokio begun
47:15 The Evolution of IO-URing and Its Practicality
53:11 Amazon's Adoption of Rust and Tokyo
55:06 Transitioning Leadership in the Tokyo Project
57:15 Toasty
01:08:55 AI in Software Development: A Tool for Productivity
01:25:53 First Tokio Conference
01:34:28 Outro

Netstack.FM

More information: https://netstack.fm/#episode-34
Join our Discord: https://discord.gg/29EetaSYCD
Reach out to us: hello@netstack.fm

Music for this episode was composed by Dj Mailbox. Listen to his music at https://on.soundcloud.com/4MRyPSNj8FZoVGpytj.