TY - GEN
T1 - SwiShmem
T2 - 19th ACM Workshop on Hot Topics in Networks, HotNets 2020
AU - Zeno, Lior
AU - Ports, Dan R.K.
AU - Nelson, Jacob
AU - Silberstein, Mark
N1 - Funding Information: We would like to thank the anonymous reviewers and our shepherd, Ben Leong, for their insightful comments and constructive feedback. Lior Zeno was partially supported by the HPI-Technion Research School. This research was supported by Israel Science Foundation grant 1027/18. Publisher Copyright: © 2020 ACM.
PY - 2020/11/4
Y1 - 2020/11/4
N2 - Programmable switches provide an appealing platform for running network functions (NFs), such as NATs, firewalls, and DDoS detectors, entirely in data plane, at staggering multi-Tbps processing rates. However, to be used in real deployments with a complex multi-switch topology, one NF instance must be deployed on each switch, which together act as a single logical NF. This requirement poses significant challenges in particular for stateful NFs, due to the need to manage distributed shared NF state among the switches. While considered a solved problem in classical distributed systems, data-plane state sharing requires addressing several unique challenges: high data rate, limited switch memory, and packet loss. We present the design of SwiShmem, the first distributed shared state management layer for data-plane P4 programs, which facilitates the implementation of stateful distributed NFs on programmable switches. We first analyze the access patterns and consistency requirements of popular NFs that lend themselves for in-switch execution, and then discuss the design and implementation options while highlighting open research questions.
AB - Programmable switches provide an appealing platform for running network functions (NFs), such as NATs, firewalls, and DDoS detectors, entirely in data plane, at staggering multi-Tbps processing rates. However, to be used in real deployments with a complex multi-switch topology, one NF instance must be deployed on each switch, which together act as a single logical NF. This requirement poses significant challenges in particular for stateful NFs, due to the need to manage distributed shared NF state among the switches. While considered a solved problem in classical distributed systems, data-plane state sharing requires addressing several unique challenges: high data rate, limited switch memory, and packet loss. We present the design of SwiShmem, the first distributed shared state management layer for data-plane P4 programs, which facilitates the implementation of stateful distributed NFs on programmable switches. We first analyze the access patterns and consistency requirements of popular NFs that lend themselves for in-switch execution, and then discuss the design and implementation options while highlighting open research questions.
KW - distributed state management
KW - network function virtualization
KW - programmable networks
KW - programmable switches
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85097071510
U2 - 10.1145/3422604.3425946
DO - 10.1145/3422604.3425946
M3 - Conference contribution
T3 - HotNets 2020 - Proceedings of the 19th ACM Workshop on Hot Topics in Networks
SP - 160
EP - 167
BT - HotNets 2020 - Proceedings of the 19th ACM Workshop on Hot Topics in Networks
Y2 - 4 November 2020 through 6 November 2020
ER -