Automatic Performance-Optimal Offloading of Network Functions on Programmable Switches
Automatic Performance-Optimal Offloading of Network Functions on Programmable Switches
复制标题
可编程交换机上网络功能的自动性能优化卸载
DOI：
10.1109/tcc.2022.3149817
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发表时间：
2023-04-01
影响因子：
6.5
通讯作者：
Yang, Qiang
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Chen, Xiang;Liu, Hongyan;Yang, Qiang
在网络功能虚拟化（NFV）中，网络功能（NF）被链接为服务功能链（SFC），以低成本和高灵活性增强NF管理。最近的NFV解决方案表明，可以通过将NF卸载到可编程交换机来显著提高SFC的分组处理性能。然而，这样的卸载需要对异质NF特性（例如，NF资源消耗和NF性能行为），以实现最大的SFC性能。不幸的是，现有的解决方案都没有提供这些NF属性的自动分析。因此，网络管理员不得不手动检查NF的源代码并手动分析各种NF属性，这是非常耗时和费力的。在本文中，我们提出了LightNF，这是一种简化可编程网络中NF卸载的新系统。LightNF通过代码分析和性能分析自动剖析全面的NF属性，同时消除手动工作。然后，它利用其NF属性的分析结果，在其SFC布局，以便作出性能最佳的卸载决策。我们已经在基于Tofino的硬件可编程交换机上实现了LightNF。我们进行了大量的实验，以评估LightNF与现实世界的测试平台和大规模的模拟。我们的实验表明，LightNF优于现有的解决方案，每个数据包处理延迟降低了几个数量级，SFC吞吐量提高了9.5倍。
In network function virtualization (NFV), network functions (NFs) are chained as a service function chain (SFC) to enhance NF management with low cost and high flexibility. Recent NFV solutions indicate that the packet processing performance of SFCs can be significantly improved by offloading NFs to programmable switches. However, such offloading requires a deep understanding of heterogeneous NF properties (e.g., NF resource consumption and NF performance behaviors) to achieve the maximum SFC performance. Unfortunately, none of existing solutions provide automatic analysis of these NF properties. Thus, network administrators have to manually examine the source codes of NFs and profile various NF properties by hand, which is extremely time-consuming and laborious. In this article, we propose LightNF, a novel system that simplifies NF offloading in programmable networks. LightNF automatically dissects comprehensive NF properties by means of code analysis and performance profiling while eliminating manual efforts. It then leverages its analysis results of NF properties in its SFC placement so as to make the performance-optimal offloading decisions. We have implemented LightNF on Tofino-based hardware programmable switches. We perform extensive experiments to evaluate LightNF with a real-world testbed and large-scale simulation. Our experiments show that LightNF outperforms existing solutions with an orders-of-magnitude reduction in per-packet processing latency and 9.5× improvement in SFC throughput.