Bridging the Gap: Enhancing Network Services with Application-Specific Solutions
The disconnect between applications and data center networks often results in inefficiencies, where traditional, application-agnostic network services fall short. This discussion explores innovative software-based solutions like RouteBricks and ServerSwitch, which aim to replace outdated protocols with application-specific services. Using the Network-as-a-Service (NaaS) model, switches enhanced with processing capabilities allow for adaptive network flow management. By addressing oversubscription, path collision, and traffic prioritization, we can improve performance and isolation for applications such as Hadoop and in-network caching.
Bridging the Gap: Enhancing Network Services with Application-Specific Solutions
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Presentation Transcript
Mismatch between Apps & Data Centre Network • Reality • Abstraction Treating symptoms rather than cause... • Many proposals for software-based routers and switches • e.g. RouteBricks , ServerSwitch, PacketShader, SideCar, NetMap,… • Replace traditional, application-agnosticnetwork services • e.g. IPv4 forwarding, deep packet inspection, firewalls • Why don’t use them to implement application-specific services? Oversubscription: Fat-tree [SIGCOMM’08], VL2 [SIGCOMM’09], … Path collision: Hedera[NSDI’10], MPTCP [SIGCOMM’11], SPAIN [NSDI’10], … TCPIncast: DCTCP [SIGCOMM’10], ICTCP [CoNEXT’10], … Traffic prioritisation: Orchestra [SIGCOMM’11], D2TCP [SIGCOMM’11], … Fair sharing: Seawall [NSDI’11], FairCloud[SIGCOMM’12], … Peter Pietzuch (Imperial College London)
EPSRC NaaS Project: Network-as-a-Service • Switches augmented with processing capabilities (NaaSbox) • Applications deploy processing functions on each device • Permits applications to adapt network flows based on requirements • Initial use case: on-path data aggregation for Hadoop • Other use cases: content-based routing, in-network caching, ... • Research challenges: performance, isolation, programming model Peter Pietzuch (Imperial College London)