NeTS: CSR: Small: Towards a Redundancy Aware Network Stack

该研究项目将利用典型云环境中自然存在的冗余来提高应用程序性能。关键思想是使整个网络堆栈都知道副本，并设计主动使用重复请求以避免掉队的网络机制。具体而言，本研究将构建冗余感知网络堆栈（RANS）；在RANS中，应用程序将向网络公开有关冗余的信息（例如，数据存储在机器A和机器B中）。网络将使用利用这些信息的新机制（例如，同时使用多个副本的传输协议）。应用程序将进行修改，以充分利用新机制。通过探索应用程序与网络的协同设计，本项目将在协议栈的不同层次上取得研究进展。这包括至少四个不同方面的创新：i)调度框架，ii)应用程序和网络之间的抽象和接口，iii)新的网络机制（传输，网络内机制），以及iv)利用新机制的新应用程序设计。本研究将解决针对不同资源（例如网络）实施该框架的挑战。RANS承诺克服掉队者带来的问题。这将减少应用程序延迟，特别是在尾部，这是应用程序提供者主要关注的问题。提出的研究将在设计系统和网络协议方面取得根本性进展，以提高数据中心应用的性能。本研究将对各利益相关者产生重大影响，包括互联网用户、云服务提供商、网络研究人员和学生。终端用户在使用现有应用程序时将体验到更好的性能。云服务提供商可以部署需要高可靠性和高性能的新应用程序。研究人员将受益于开源软件产品，学生将受益于云计算黑客马拉松研讨会和研究项目的机会。

This research project will leverage redundancy, which is naturally present in typical cloud environments, to improve application performance. The key idea is to make the entire network stack aware of replicas, and to design network mechanisms that pro-actively use duplicate requests to avoid stragglers. Specifically, this research will build a redundancy aware network stack (RANS); in RANS, applications will expose information about redundancy to the network (e.g., data is stored in both machine A and machine B). The network will use new mechanisms that leverage this information (e.g., transport protocol that uses multiple replicas at the same time). Applications will be modified to make full use of the new mechanisms.By exploring the co-design of the application and the network, this project will make research advances at different levels of the protocol stack.This includes innovation in at least four different aspects: i) scheduling framework, ii) abstraction and interface between the applications and the network, iii) new network mechanisms (transport, in-network mechanisms), and iv) new application designs that exploit the new mechanisms. This research will address the challenges of implementing this framework for different resources (e.g., network). RANS promises to overcome the problems caused by stragglers. This will reduce application latency, especially at the tail, which is a major concern for application providers.The proposed research will make fundamental advances in designing systems and network protocols to improve performance of data center applications. This research will have significant impact on various stakeholders, including Internet users, cloud service providers, and researchers and students of networking. End users will experience better performance while using existing applications. Cloud service providers can deploy new applications that require high reliability and performance. Researchers will benefit from the open source software artifacts and students will benefit from a cloud computing Hackathon workshop and opportunities for research projects.