Traffic control in the Linux kernel offers a large set of functions for classifying and scheduling network traffic. Unfortunately, properly configuring traffic control is complicated not only by sometimes obscure underlying theoretical concepts, but it is also made difficult by the rather scary "tc" configuration language used for this.

tcng aims to improve this situation. It defines a new, much more human-friendly configuration language, and provides a compiler that translates that to a set of lower-level languages, among them C and "tc". tcng also comes with a simulator that uses the actual kernel code to simulate the traffic control subsystem.

Werner Almesberger got hooked on Linux in the days of the 0.12 kernel, when studing computer science at ETH Zurich, and he has been hacking the kernel and related infrastructure components ever since, both as a recreational activity, and as part of his work, first while doing a PhD in communications at EPF Lausanne, and later also in industry. Being a true Linux devout, he moved closer to the home of the penguins in 2002, and now lives in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Contributions to Linux include the LILO boot loader, the initial RAM disk (initrd), the MS-DOS file system, some of the Linux port to the Psion S5 PDA, and much of the ATM code.