13 research outputs found
iRED: A disaggregated P4-AQM fully implemented in programmable data plane hardware
Routers employ queues to temporarily hold packets when the scheduler cannot
immediately process them. Congestion occurs when the arrival rate of packets
exceeds the processing capacity, leading to increased queueing delay. Over
time, Active Queue Management (AQM) strategies have focused on directly
draining packets from queues to alleviate congestion and reduce queuing delay.
On Programmable Data Plane (PDP) hardware, AQMs traditionally reside in the
Egress pipeline due to the availability of queue delay information there. We
argue that this approach wastes the router's resources because the dropped
packet has already consumed the entire pipeline of the device. In this work, we
propose ingress Random Early Detection (iRED), a more efficient approach that
addresses the Egress drop problem. iRED is a disaggregated P4-AQM fully
implemented in programmable data plane hardware and also supports Low Latency,
Low Loss, and Scalable Throughput (L4S) framework, saving device pipeline
resources by dropping packets in the Ingress block. To evaluate iRED, we
conducted three experiments using a Tofino2 programmable switch: i) An in-depth
analysis of state-of-the-art AQMs on PDP hardware, using 12 different network
configurations varying in bandwidth, Round-Trip Time (RTT), and Maximum
Transmission Unit (MTU). The results demonstrate that iRED can significantly
reduce router resource consumption, with up to a 10x reduction in memory usage,
12x fewer processing cycles, and 8x less power consumption for the same traffic
load; ii) A performance evaluation regarding the L4S framework. The results
prove that iRED achieves fairness in bandwidth usage for different types of
traffic (classic and scalable); iii) A comprehensive analysis of the QoS in a
real setup of a DASH) technology. iRED demonstrated up to a 2.34x improvement
in FPS and a 4.77x increase in the video player buffer fill.Comment: Preprint (TNSM under review
DESiRED -- Dynamic, Enhanced, and Smart iRED: A P4-AQM with Deep Reinforcement Learning and In-band Network Telemetry
Active Queue Management (AQM) is a mechanism employed to alleviate transient
congestion in network device buffers, such as routers and switches. Traditional
AQM algorithms use fixed thresholds, like target delay or queue occupancy, to
compute random packet drop probabilities. A very small target delay can
increase packet losses and reduce link utilization, while a large target delay
may increase queueing delays while lowering drop probability. Due to dynamic
network traffic characteristics, where traffic fluctuations can lead to
significant queue variations, maintaining a fixed threshold AQM may not suit
all applications. Consequently, we explore the question: \textit{What is the
ideal threshold (target delay) for AQMs?} In this work, we introduce DESiRED
(Dynamic, Enhanced, and Smart iRED), a P4-based AQM that leverages precise
network feedback from In-band Network Telemetry (INT) to feed a Deep
Reinforcement Learning (DRL) model. This model dynamically adjusts the target
delay based on rewards that maximize application Quality of Service (QoS). We
evaluate DESiRED in a realistic P4-based test environment running an MPEG-DASH
service. Our findings demonstrate up to a 90x reduction in video stall and a
42x increase in high-resolution video playback quality when the target delay is
adjusted dynamically by DESiRED.Comment: Preprint (Computer Networks under review
A Framework for Service Provisioning and Management in Virtual Active Telecom Networks
The advent of Telecom over the last years brought up many challenges for service providers. The diculty to oer services and, in the same time, to perform their management requires an integrated solution for both, service provisioning and management
Using Virtualization to Provide Interdomain QoS-enabled Routing
Abstract — Today, the most important aspect related with the Internet architecture is its ossification representing the difficulties to introduce evolutions in the architecture as a way to meet the demands posed by the new requirements as mobility, security, heterogeneity, etc. In this paper we discuss how the network virtualization can be used to support the interdomain QoS-enabled routing. We present the Virtual Topology Service (VTS), a new approach to provide interdomain services taking into account QoS and Traffic Engineering (TE) constraints. We advocate in favor of a service layer that offers new mechanisms for interdomain routing without affecting the underlying Internet infrastructure. The VTS abstracts the physical network details of each Autonomous System (AS) and is totally integrated with BGP. Two models to obtain VTs were defined, the Push Model and the Pull Model. The latter one uses the Internet hierarchy to get more alternative routes towards a destination. We will show how the VTS and other services such as the end-toend negotiation service work together to provide a complete mechanism for provisioning of interdomain QoS-enabled routes in IP networks. Preliminary evaluation results are also presented