Traditional network resident functions (e.g., firewalls, network address translation) and middleboxes (caches, load balancers) have moved from purpose-built appliances to software-based components. However, L2/L3 network functions (NFs) are being implemented on Network Function Virtualization (NFV) platforms that extensively exploit kernel-bypass technology. They often use DPDK for zero-copy delivery and high performance. On the other hand, L4/L7 middleboxes, which usually require full network protocol stack support, take advantage of a full-fledged kernel-based system with a greater emphasis on functionality. Thus, L2/L3 NFs and middleboxes continue to be handled by distinct platforms on different nodes.This paper proposes MiddleNet that seeks to overcome this dichotomy by developing a unified network resident function framework that supports L2/L3 NFs and L4/L7 middleboxes. MiddleNet supports function chains that are essential in both NFV and middlebox environments. MiddleNet uses DPDK for zero-copy packet delivery without interrupt-based processing, to enable the ‘bump-in-the-wire’ L2/L3 processing performance required of NFV. To support L4/L7 middlebox functionality, MiddleNet utilizes a consolidated, kernel-based protocol stack processing, avoiding a dedicated protocol stack for each function. MiddleNet fully exploits the event-driven capabilities provided by the extended Berkeley Packet Filter (eBPF) and seamlessly integrates it with shared memory for high-performance communication in L4/L7 middlebox function chains. The overheads for MiddleNet are strictly load-proportional, without needing the dedicated CPU cores of DPDK-based approaches. MiddleNet supports flow-dependent packet processing by leveraging Single Root I/O Virtualization (SR-IOV) to dynamically select packet processing needed (Layer 2 to Layer 7). Our experimental results show that MiddleNet can achieve high performance in such a unified environment.
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X-IO: A High-performance Unified I/O Interface using Lock-free Shared Memory Processing
Cloud-native microservice applications use different communication paradigms to network microservices, including both synchronous and asynchronous I/O for exchanging data. Existing solutions depend on kernel-based networking, incurring significant overheads. The interdependence between microservices for these applications involves considerable communication, including contention between multiple concurrent flows or user sessions. In this paper, we design X-IO, a high-performance unified I/O interface that is built on top of shared memory processing with lock-free producer/consumer rings, eliminating kernel networking overheads and contention. X-IO offers a feature-rich interface. X-IO’s zero-copy interface supports building provides truly zero-copy data transfers between microservices, achieving high performance. X-IO also provides a POSIX-like socket interface using HTTP/REST API to achieve seamless porting of microservices to X-IO, without any change to the application code. X-IO supports concurrent connections for microservices that require distinct user sessions operating in parallel. Our preliminary experimental results show that X-IO’s zero-copy interfaces achieve 2.8x-4.1x performance improvement compared to kernel-based interfaces. Its socket interfaces outperform kernel TCP sockets and achieve performance close to UNIX-domain sockets. The HTTP/REST APIs in X-IO perform 1.4 x-2.3 x better than kernel-based alternatives with concurrent connections.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1823270
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10480222
- Publisher / Repository:
- IEEE
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- 2023 IEEE 9th International Conference on Network Softwarization (NetSoft)
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 107 to 115
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Location:
- Madrid, Spain
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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