Networked and Distributed Systems
Programmable Networks
We use dataplane programmable switches to improve goodput in Network Function chain deployments.
Parking Packet Payload with P4
Network Function (NF) deployments suffer from poor link goodput, because popular NFs such as firewalls process only packet headers while receiving and transmitting complete packets. As a result, unnecessary packet payloads needlessly consume link bandwidth. We introduce PayloadPark, which improves goodput by temporarily parking packet payloads in the stateful memory of dataplane programmable switches. PayloadPark forwards only packet headers to NF servers, thereby saving bandwidth between the switch and the NF server. PayloadPark is a transparent in-network optimization that complements existing approaches for optimizing NF performance on end-hosts.
Papers
- Parking Packet Payload with P4 (to appear in CoNEXT 2020)[arXiv]
People
- Swati Goswami
- Nodir Kodirov
- Craig Mustard
Systopia lab is supported by a number of government and industrial sources, including Cisco Systems, the Communications Security Establishment Canada, Intel Research, the National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), Network Appliance, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, and the National Science Foundation (NSF).