522 research outputs found
Arbitrary Packet Matching in OpenFlow
OpenFlow has emerged as the de facto control
protocol to implement Software-Defined Networking (SDN). In
its current form, the protocol specifies a set of fields on which
it matches packets to perform actions, such as forwarding,
discarding or modifying specific protocol header fields at a switch.
The number of match fields has increased with every version of
the protocol to extend matching capabilities, however, it is still
not flexible enough to match on arbitrary packet fields which
limits innovation and new protocol development with OpenFlow.
In this paper, we argue that a fully flexible match structure
is superior to continuously extending the number of fields
to match upon. We use Berkeley Packet Filters (BPF) for
packet classification to provide a protocol-independent, flexible
alternative to today’s OpenFlow fixed match fields. We have
implemented a prototype system and evaluated the performance
of the proposed match scheme, with a focus on the time it takes
to execute and the memory required to store different match
filter specifications. Our prototype implementation demonstrates
that line-rate arbitrary packet classification can be achieved with
complex BPF programs
Modeling Data-Plane Power Consumption of Future Internet Architectures
With current efforts to design Future Internet Architectures (FIAs), the
evaluation and comparison of different proposals is an interesting research
challenge. Previously, metrics such as bandwidth or latency have commonly been
used to compare FIAs to IP networks. We suggest the use of power consumption as
a metric to compare FIAs. While low power consumption is an important goal in
its own right (as lower energy use translates to smaller environmental impact
as well as lower operating costs), power consumption can also serve as a proxy
for other metrics such as bandwidth and processor load.
Lacking power consumption statistics about either commodity FIA routers or
widely deployed FIA testbeds, we propose models for power consumption of FIA
routers. Based on our models, we simulate scenarios for measuring power
consumption of content delivery in different FIAs. Specifically, we address two
questions: 1) which of the proposed FIA candidates achieves the lowest energy
footprint; and 2) which set of design choices yields a power-efficient network
architecture? Although the lack of real-world data makes numerous assumptions
necessary for our analysis, we explore the uncertainty of our calculations
through sensitivity analysis of input parameters
Programming Protocol-Independent Packet Processors
P4 is a high-level language for programming protocol-independent packet
processors. P4 works in conjunction with SDN control protocols like OpenFlow.
In its current form, OpenFlow explicitly specifies protocol headers on which it
operates. This set has grown from 12 to 41 fields in a few years, increasing
the complexity of the specification while still not providing the flexibility
to add new headers. In this paper we propose P4 as a strawman proposal for how
OpenFlow should evolve in the future. We have three goals: (1)
Reconfigurability in the field: Programmers should be able to change the way
switches process packets once they are deployed. (2) Protocol independence:
Switches should not be tied to any specific network protocols. (3) Target
independence: Programmers should be able to describe packet-processing
functionality independently of the specifics of the underlying hardware. As an
example, we describe how to use P4 to configure a switch to add a new
hierarchical label
Range-enhanced packet classification to improve computational performance on field programmable gate array
Multi-filed packet classification is a powerful classification engine that classifies input packets into different fields based on predefined rules. As the demand for the internet increases, efficient network routers can support many network features like quality of services (QoS), firewalls, security, multimedia communications, and virtual private networks. However, the traditional packet classification methods do not fulfill today’s network functionality and requirements efficiently. In this article, an efficient range enhanced packet classification (REPC) module is designed using a range bit-vector encoding method, which provides a unique design to store the precomputed values in memory. In addition, the REPC supports range to prefix features to match the packets to the corresponding header fields. The synthesis and implementation results of REPC are analyzed and tabulated in detail. The REPC module utilizes 3% slices on Artix-7 field programmable gate array (FPGA), works at 99.87 Gbps throughput with a latency of 3 clock cycles. The proposed REPC is compared with existing packet classification approaches with better hardware constraints improvements
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