SBIR Phase II: Stateless - Taking from the Lab to a Production Environment

小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第二阶段项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力源于这样一个事实，即它建立在将IT基础设施作为服务消费的趋势之上，并释放了这种网络功能的潜力。在将无状态网络功能部署为服务解决方案时，云提供商、企业和互联网服务提供商能够按需启动网络功能，如防火墙和负载均衡器，无状态平台可自动管理这些功能。根据思科的说法，未来几年云流量预计将翻两番，设备数量快速增长(随着物联网的出现)，安全威胁的复杂性和规模不断增加，该项目将为运营商提供快速轻松地部署基础设施的灵活性，以跟上这些趋势和威胁。通过这样做，社会将体验到更可靠的网络应用程序，并减少数据泄露。这个小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第二阶段项目提供了实现网络功能操作系统愿景所需的研究和开发。第一阶段项目通过演示将网络功能状态与处理过程分离的技术可以转化为产品并集成到生产环境中，从而确立了技术可行性，而第二阶段项目将接近三个新的研究方向，将支持一个完整的平台。(I)网络服务链：虽然这不是一个新概念，但事实证明，它对虚拟设备具有挑战性。该项目将增加对无状态平台的支持，将网络功能连接到链中，弹性扩展链，提供全链的服务质量。(Ii)可观察性：这个项目将在适当的时候引入抽象细节的能力，或者根据需要剥离抽象层，为运营商提供他们完全控制的简单解决方案。(Iii)软件开发套件：该项目将引入应用程序编程接口和隔离机制，以允许第三方，无论是其他供应商还是数据中心运营商，引入基于无状态平台的新网络功能。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project results from the fact that it builds on the trend to make IT infrastructure consumable as a service and unlocks this potential for network functions. In deploying the Stateless Network Functions as a Service solution, cloud providers, enterprises, and internet service providers are able to launch network functions, such as firewalls and load balancers, on demand, and the Stateless platform automates the management of these functions. With cloud traffic expected to quadruple over the next several years (according to Cisco), a rapid growth in number of devices (with the Internet of Things emerging), and an ever-increasing complexity and scale of security threats, this project will provide operators with the agility to quickly and easily deploy infrastructure to keep up with these trends and threats. In doing so, society will experience more reliable networked applications with reduced data breaches.This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project provides the research and development needed to realize the vision of a network function operating system. Whereas the Phase I project established technical feasibility by demonstrating the technology that decouples network functions state from processing can be turned into a product and integrated into a production environment, the Phase II project will approach three new research directions that will support a complete platform. (i) Network service chaining: While not a new concept, it is one that has proven to be challenging with virtual appliances. This project will add support to the Stateless platform to connect network functions into chains, elastically scale chains, and provide quality of service of the whole chain. (ii) Observability: This project will introduce the ability to abstract away the details when appropriate or peel away the layers of abstraction as needed, providing operators with a simple solution they have full control over. (iii) Software development kit: This project will introduce both the application programming interfaces as well as the isolation mechanisms to allow third parties, whether other vendors or data center operators, to introduce new network functionality based on the Stateless platform.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.