Design and implementation of the node identity internetworking architecture

The Internet Protocol (IP) has been proven very flexible, being able to accommodate all kinds of link technologies and supporting a broad range of applications. The basic principles of the original Internet architecture include end-to-end addressing, global routeability and a single namespace of IP addresses that unintentionally serves both as locators and host identifiers. The commercial success and widespread use of the Internet have lead to new requirements, which include internetworking over business boundaries, mobility and multi-homing in an untrusted environment. Our approach to satisfy these new requirements is to introduce a new internetworking layer, the node identity layer. Such a layer runs on top of the different versions of IP, but could also run directly on top of other kinds of network technologies, such as MPLS and 2G/3G PDP contexts. This approach enables connectivity across different communication technologies, supports mobility, multi-homing, and security from ground up. This paper describes the Node Identity Architecture in detail and discusses the experiences from implementing and running a prototype

High-speed, in-band performance measurement instrumentation for next generation IP networks

Facilitating always-on instrumentation of Internet traffic for the purposes of performance measurement is crucial in order to enable accountability of resource usage and automated network control, management and optimisation. This has proven infeasible to date due to the lack of native measurement mechanisms that can form an integral part of the network‟s main forwarding operation. However, Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) specification enables the efficient encoding and processing of optional per-packet information as a native part of the network layer, and this constitutes a strong reason for IPv6 to be adopted as the ubiquitous next generation Internet transport. In this paper we present a very high-speed hardware implementation of in-line measurement, a truly native traffic instrumentation mechanism for the next generation Internet, which facilitates performance measurement of the actual data-carrying traffic at small timescales between two points in the network. This system is designed to operate as part of the routers' fast path and to incur an absolutely minimal impact on the network operation even while instrumenting traffic between the edges of very high capacity links. Our results show that the implementation can be easily accommodated by current FPGA technology, and real Internet traffic traces verify that the overhead incurred by instrumenting every packet over a 10 Gb/s operational backbone link carrying a typical workload is indeed negligible

SDN Architecture and Southbound APIs for IPv6 Segment Routing Enabled Wide Area Networks

The SRv6 architecture (Segment Routing based on IPv6 data plane) is a promising solution to support services like Traffic Engineering, Service Function Chaining and Virtual Private Networks in IPv6 backbones and datacenters. The SRv6 architecture has interesting scalability properties as it reduces the amount of state information that needs to be configured in the nodes to support the network services. In this paper, we describe the advantages of complementing the SRv6 technology with an SDN based approach in backbone networks. We discuss the architecture of a SRv6 enabled network based on Linux nodes. In addition, we present the design and implementation of the Southbound API between the SDN controller and the SRv6 device. We have defined a data-model and four different implementations of the API, respectively based on gRPC, REST, NETCONF and remote Command Line Interface (CLI). Since it is important to support both the development and testing aspects we have realized an Intent based emulation system to build realistic and reproducible experiments. This collection of tools automate most of the configuration aspects relieving the experimenter from a significant effort. Finally, we have realized an evaluation of some performance aspects of our architecture and of the different variants of the Southbound APIs and we have analyzed the effects of the configuration updates in the SRv6 enabled nodes

Implementation and performance analysis of a QoS-aware TFRC mechanism

This paper deals with the improvement of transport protocol behaviour over the DiffServ Assured Forwarding (AF)class. The Assured Service (AS) provides a minimum throughput guarantee that classical congestion control mechanisms, like window-based in TCP or equation-based in TCP-Friendly Rate Control (TFRC), are not able to use efficiently. In response, this paper proposes a performance analysis of a QoS aware congestion control mechanism, named gTFRC, which improves the delivery of continuous streams. The gTFRC (guaranteed TFRC) mechanism has been integrated into an Enhanced Transport Protocol (ETP) that allows protocol mechanisms to be dynamically managed and controlled. After comparing a ns-2 simulation and our implementation of the basic TFRC mechanism, we show that ETP/gTFRC extension is able to reach a minimum throughput guarantee whatever the flow’s RTT and target rate (TR) and the network provisioning conditions

Linux XIA: an interoperable meta network architecture to crowdsource the future Internet

With the growing number of proposed clean-slate redesigns of the Internet, the need for a medium that enables all stakeholders to participate in the realization, evaluation, and selection of these designs is increasing. We believe that the missing catalyst is a meta network architecture that welcomes most, if not all, clean-state designs on a level playing field, lowers deployment barriers, and leaves the final evaluation to the broader community. This paper presents Linux XIA, a native implementation of XIA [12] in the Linux kernel, as a candidate. We first describe Linux XIA in terms of its architectural realizations and algorithmic contributions. We then demonstrate how to port several distinct and unrelated network architectures onto Linux XIA. Finally, we provide a hybrid evaluation of Linux XIA at three levels of abstraction in terms of its ability to: evolve and foster interoperation of new architectures, embed disparate architectures inside the implementation’s framework, and maintain a comparable forwarding performance to that of the legacy TCP/IP implementation. Given this evaluation, we substantiate a previously unsupported claim of XIA: that it readily supports and enables network evolution, collaboration, and interoperability—traits we view as central to the success of any future Internet architecture.This research was supported by the National Science Foundation under awards CNS-1040800, CNS-1345307 and CNS-1347525

Container network functions: bringing NFV to the network edge

In order to cope with the increasing network utilization driven by new mobile clients, and to satisfy demand for new network services and performance guarantees, telecommunication service providers are exploiting virtualization over their network by implementing network services in virtual machines, decoupled from legacy hardware accelerated appliances. This effort, known as NFV, reduces OPEX and provides new business opportunities. At the same time, next generation mobile, enterprise, and IoT networks are introducing the concept of computing capabilities being pushed at the network edge, in close proximity of the users. However, the heavy footprint of today's NFV platforms prevents them from operating at the network edge. In this article, we identify the opportunities of virtualization at the network edge and present Glasgow Network Functions (GNF), a container-based NFV platform that runs and orchestrates lightweight container VNFs, saving core network utilization and providing lower latency. Finally, we demonstrate three useful examples of the platform: IoT DDoS remediation, on-demand troubleshooting for telco networks, and supporting roaming of network functions