[网络领域顶会追踪系列#23][NSDI'22]运行时可编程交换机

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Runtime Programmable Switches

背景

将网络编程以添加、删除、修改功能已经变为了我们社区的一个长期目标。

挑战

不幸的是，在今天的可编程网络中，变化的速度被一个实际的基础屏障所限制，需要管理操作如排空（drain）或重路由目标节点目标节点上的流量，将数据面重新成像（re-imaging）和重新将流量导回原来的路由。

工作

作者的项目研究了使未来网络运行时可编程（runtime programmable）的技术。

FlexCore使得在最小的资源开销、不打断服务的情况下，交换机数据面运行时可以进行部分重配置，且数据包的处理是有一致性保障的。

它有着交换机架构、部分重配置原语、重配置算法、一致性保证方面的考量。

实验

仿真结果表明了运行时可编程交换机的可行性和好处。

原文摘要

Programming the network to add, remove, and modify functions has been a longstanding goal in our community. Unfortunately, in today’s programmable networks, the velocity of change is restricted by a practical yet fundamental barrier: reprogramming network devices is an intrusive change, requiring management operations such as draining and rerouting traffic from the target node, re-imaging the data plane, and redirecting traffic back to its original route. This project investigates design techniques to make future networks runtime programmable. FlexCore enables partial reconfiguration of switch data planes at runtime with minimum resource overheads, without service disruption, while processing packets with consistency guarantees. It involves design considerations in switch architectures, partial reconfiguration primitives, reconfiguration algorithms, as well as consistency guarantees. Our evaluation results demonstrate the feasibility and benefits of runtime programmable switches.