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Towards a Stateful Forwarding Abstraction to Implement Scalable Network Functions in Software and Hardware

Luca Petrucci,Nicola Bonelli,M. Bonola,G. Procissi,C. Cascone,D. Sanvito,S. Pontarelli,G. Bianchi,R. Bifulco

Published 2016 in arXiv.org

ABSTRACT

An effective packet processing abstraction that leverages software or hardware acceleration techniques can simplify the implementation of high-performance virtual network functions. In this paper, we explore the suitability of SDN switches' stateful forwarding abstractions to model accelerated functions in both software and hardware accelerators, such as optimized software switches and FPGA-based NICs. In particular, we select an Extended Finite State Machine abstraction and demonstrate its suitability by implementing the Linux's iptables interface. By doing so, we provide the acceleration of functions such as stateful firewalls, load balancers and dynamic NATs. We find that supporting a flow-level programming consistency model is an important feature of a programming abstraction in this context. Furthermore, we demonstrate that such a model simplifies the scaling of the system when implemented in software, enabling efficient multi-core processing without harming state consistency.

PUBLICATION RECORD

  • Publication year

    2016

  • Venue

    arXiv.org

  • Publication date

    2016-11-09

  • Fields of study

    Computer Science, Engineering

  • Identifiers
    arXiv 1611.02853
  • External record

    Open on Semantic Scholar

  • Source metadata

    Semantic Scholar

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CONCEPTS

  • No concepts are published for this paper.

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