CAREER: Stateless Network Functions: Building a Better Network Through Disaggregation

为了提高性能、安全性和可靠性，网络从业者放弃了无状态网络的原则，在互联网防火墙、负载均衡器和入侵检测系统等设备上增加了状态处理。在这样做的过程中，网络变得越来越复杂和脆弱。这一提议的研究目标是为基于分散的虚拟网络功能的变革性网络体系结构提供基础。开发这一能力将提高包括计算云在内的虚拟计算系统的性能和运行，并最终使美国的信息技术能力更具竞争力。该项目将引入新的系统和算法，以使分散的网络功能架构成为可能，利用低延迟数据存储中的分布式系统的最新进展，以及网络处理的独特特性，可用于优化处理和状态之间的接口。具体地说，这项建议将：1)开发算法和系统基础，以克服在面对增加的延迟、访问状态的开销和并发执行时实现所需性能方面的挑战；以及2)创建利用分散的网络功能来实现网络功能基础设施的新型网络管理能力，该网络功能基础设施对负载变化、组件故障以及软件或配置更新是高效和稳健的。

To improve performance, security, and reliability, network practitioners have moved away from the principle of a stateless network and added stateful processing to devices such as internet firewalls, load balancers, and intrusion detection systems. In doing so, networks have become increasingly complex and brittle. The research objective of this proposal is to provide the foundation for a transformative network architecture based on disaggregated virtual network functions. Developing this capability will improve the performance and operation of virtualized computing systems, including compute clouds, and ultimately make US information technology capabilities more competitive.This project will introduce the new systems and algorithms to make a disaggregated network function architecture possible, leveraging recent advances in distributed systems in low-latency data stores, and the unique properties of network processing that can be used to optimize the interface between the processing and state. Specifically, this proposal will: 1) develop the algorithmic and system underpinnings that overcome the challenges in achieving the needed performance in the face of added latency, overhead in accessing state, and concurrent execution; and 2) create novel network management capabilities that leverage disaggregated network functions to realize a network function infrastructure that is efficient and robust to load changes, component failures, and software or configuration updates.