CAREER: High-Performance Packet Processing with Programmable NIC Data-Planes

在当今的数据中心，网络性能正在激增，超过了现代处理器的能力，并使其成为要求苛刻的数据中心应用程序的性能瓶颈。遭受此问题的应用程序的例子包括简化Facebook、Google、Amazon和其他流行网站的后端服务。这些服务将其大部分时间用于网络输入/输出。随着处理器和网络性能之间的差距拉大，这些服务的效率越来越低。更高效的服务器软件可以改善这种情况，提高应用程序的性能，同时也减少了数据中心巨大的能量消耗。本项目研究服务器硬件和软件网络堆栈的重新设计，旨在精简和提高网络I/O能效。为此，该项目使用了一种新的编程模型，用于网卡中的节能数据包处理，称为匹配和操作处理。该方法允许应用程序和操作系统在网卡上安装数据包处理规则，该规则指示网卡在将数据包传输到主机或从主机传输数据包时对其执行简单的操作。该模型具有极高的能效，同时允许保持网络协议实施的灵活性和与现有应用程序的兼容性。这项工作有可能显著提高应用程序和服务器性能，以及数据中心的能耗。全球数十亿人每天都在使用网络密集型数据中心应用。通过减少网络开销，可以减少支持现有服务所需的硬件，使开发新服务的成本更低。为了评估设计备选方案的空间，该项目构建了一个工作原型和一个能够运行标准服务器应用程序的仿真器。所有源代码以及复制系统已公布测量结果的配置文件和说明都将向公众公布，并可从项目网站(http://www.cs.utexas.edu/~simon/flexnic).)获取在项目期间，该网站将得到积极维护。

In today's data centers, network performance is surging, outstrippingthe capacity of modern processors, and turning them into a performancebottleneck for demanding data center applications. Examples ofapplications suffering from this problem include the back end servicesimplementing Facebook, Google, Amazon, and other popularwebsites. These services spend most of their time conducting networkinput/output. As the gap between processor and network performance widens,these services become less and less efficient. More efficient serversoftware can ameliorate the situation, increasing the performance ofapplications while also reducing a data center's prodigious energyconsumption.This project investigates a re-design of the server hardware andsoftware network stack, with the aim to streamline and improve networkI/O energy-efficiency. To do so, the project utilizes a newprogramming model for energy-efficient packet processing in networkcards, called match-and-action processing. The approach allowsapplications and operating systems to install packet processing rulesto the network card that instruct it to execute simple operations onpackets while transferring them to and from the host. This model ishighly energy efficient, yet allows to retain network protocolimplementation flexibility and compatibility with existingapplications.The work has the potential for dramatic improvements in applicationand server performance, as well as data center energyconsumption. Network intensive data center applications are used bybillions of people around the globe on a daily basis. By reducing theoverhead of networking, the hardware needed to support existingservices can be reduced, making it cheaper for new services to bedeveloped.To evaluate the space of design alternatives, the project builds aworking prototype and an emulator capable of running standard serverapplications. All source code, along with configuration files andinstructions for reproducing published measurements of the system,will be made public and accessible from the project website at UTAustin (http://www.cs.utexas.edu/~simon/flexnic). The website will beactively maintained for the duration of the project.