A Scalable High-Performance Active Network Node Dan S. Decasper and Bernhard Plattner, EETH Zurich Guru M. Parulkar, Sumi Chai, John D. Dehart, and Tilman Wolf, Washington University Presenter: San-Chu Han, Yan Xiao, and Jin Zhang

Introduction Two approaches in Active Networking: Programmable Switches Capsules

Convergence Motivation: Some sort of code caching makes a lot of sense (network caching) Users use code from a set of code modules written by specialists instead of injecting their own programs into the network

Related Work ANTS (MIT): Capsule approach Smart Packets (BBN): Capsule approach Georgia Tech: Network Caching SwithWare (Univ. of PA): Active Packet, Switchlet, Secure Active Router Scout/Joust (Univ. of AZ): Fastest Java environment for AN Netscript (Columbia University)

Active Networking Node (ANN) Hardware: Gigibit Environment Software: -NodeOS -Execution Environment

ANN Hardware A high number of processing elements (PEs) compared to the number of router ports Tight coupling between a processing engine and the network, as well as between the processing engine and a switch backplane Scalable processing power to meet the demands of active processing of packets

ANN Software Infrastrucure NodeOS: Kernel; Execution Environment (EE): active networking protocol-specific; DAN, Smart Packets, Switch Ware, IP, etc.

NodeOS Device Drivers (DD) Packet Classifier (PC) Selector Dispatcher (SD) Packet Scheduler (PS) Resource Controller (RC) Plugin Control Unit (PCU) Plugin Manager (PM)

Distributed Code Caching (DAN) Combination of the programmable switch and capsule approaches Replace the capsules’ program code by a reference to an active plugin stored on a code server Code fragment (plugin) is dynamically linked and executed like local code

DAN features Active Plugins in Object Code Security Addressed by Use of Well-Known Cryptography Techniques Minimization of Code Download Time Policies Integration with Existing Network Protocols

Active Plugins in Object Code Active plugins are programmed in higher- level languages such as C and compiled into object code for the ANN platform Once loaded, they are in no way different than any other code

Security Addressed by Use of Cryptography Techniques All active plugins stored on code servers are digitally signed by their developers Code servers are well-known network nodes that authenticate active plugins when sending them to ANN ANNs have the capability to check the plugin’s sources and developer before installing and running active plugins locally

Minimization of Code Download Time Probe packet Optimal code server arrangement Minimizing the distance between ANN and code server

Policies Acceptance of specified active plugins Plugin caching behavior: Setting timeouts for active plugins.

Integration with Existing Network Protocols Data link layer: Link layer control (LLC) SNAP field Network layer: IP options, especially IPv6 Transport layer: Active plugin download can take place on connection setup

The DAN Execution Environment Active Function Dispatcher (AFD) Active Plugin Loader (APL) Policy Controller (PC) Security Gateway (SG) Plugin Database Controller (PDC) Plugin Request (PR)

Code Server Feature a database of active plugins Networks nodes running a version of the DPMgmt End systems similar to database servers are better suited to be configured as code servers

Plugin Packages The code for one or more active functions The developer’s digital signature The code server’s authentication info. Configuration information

Conclusion and Future Work Three key components (factors) In the process of implementing the system Start working on a variety of applications: automatic protocol deployment and others