ITR: Designing a Programming Environment for Network Systems

设计用于有效处理数据包的网络系统必须满足两个要求：（1）支持大量的高带宽链路，从而支持大的系统吞吐量;（2）提供广泛的服务（如VPN、入侵检测、病毒扫描、区分服务和覆盖网络处理）。为了同时满足这些要求，出现了一种新的处理器，称为网络处理器（NPU）。当网络处理器与通用处理器、特定功能协处理器和其他可重构逻辑元件相结合时，为设计网络系统创建了强大的平台。不幸的是，编程这些嵌入式，高度并行的网络系统所需的方法和工具还处于起步阶段。今天，要在这样的系统上开发高性能的数据包处理应用程序，程序员需要非常熟悉硬件。程序员需要在设计时将其应用程序划分为不同的处理器类型，并开发用于管理网络系统资源的手动调优代码。这种方法冗长、缓慢，并且产生的代码很难从一个基于NPU的平台移植到另一个平台。随着下一代网络系统和NPU支持更大数量的处理器、更多样化的存储器层次结构和更复杂的处理器互连，网络系统编程的难度只会随着时间的推移而增加。拟议的研究的目标是创建一个编程环境，将使未来几代的网络系统作为今天的工作站和服务器容易编程。实现这一愿景需要一个跨学科的研究计划，跨越网络，编程语言，编译器，运行时系统和软件工程领域。拟议的多学科活动将产生一个编程环境，其中包括：（1）用于指定包处理应用程序的特定领域编程语言;（2）用于分析应用程序运行时特性的一套工具;（3）用于将包处理应用程序映射到复杂网络系统架构的一套编译时工具和技术;以及（4）运行时系统，其动态地调整资源分配以创建对攻击鲁棒的网络系统。总之，这套工具和方法将创建一个环境，将促进可编程网络系统上的便携式，高性能的数据包处理应用程序的快速发展，未来几代的多业务信息网络的构建块。

Network systems-designed to process packets efficiently-must meet two requirements: (1) support a large number of high-bandwidth links, and hence large system throughputs; and (2) offer a wide range of services (such as VPN, intrusion detection, virus scanning, differentiated services, and overlay network processing). To meet these requirements simultaneously, a new breed of processors, referred to as network processors (NPUs), has emerged. Network processors, when combined with general-purpose processors, function-specific coprocessors and other reconfigurable logic elements, create a powerful platform for designing network systems. Unfortunately, the methodologies and tools needed for programming these embedded, highly-parallel network systems are in their infancy. Today, to develop high-performance packet processing applications on such systems, programmers are required to be intimately familiar with the hardware. Programmers are required to partition their application at design time among the different processor types and develop hand-tuned code for managing network system resources. This approach is tedious, slow, and yields code that is difficult to port from one NPU-based platform to another. With the next-generation of network systems and NPUs supporting a larger number of processors, more diverse memory hierarchies, and more complex processor interconnects, the difficulty in programming network systems will only increase over time. The objective of the proposed research is to create a programming environment that will make future generations of network systems as easily programmable as today's workstations and servers. Realizing this vision requires an inter-disciplinary research program that spans the fields of networking, programming languages, compilers, run-time systems, and software engineering. The proposed multi-disciplinary activity will yield a programming environment that includes: (1) a domain-specific programming language for specifying packet processing applications; (2) a set of tools for profiling run-time characteristics of applications; (3) a set of compile-time tools and techniques for mapping packet processing applications onto complex network system architectures; and (4) a run-time system that adapts resource allocations dynamically to create network systems that are robust against attacks. Together, this set of tools and methodologies will create an environment that will facilitate rapid development of portable, high-performance packet processing applications on programmable network systems-the building blocks of future generations of multi-service information networks.