CAFE: a configurable packet forwarding engine for data center networks

ABSTRACT

Recently, Data Center Networking (DCN) has attracted many research attentions and innovative DCN designs have been proposed [1, 2]. All these designs need specialized packet forwarding engines due to their special routing algorithms, which are either based on commonly used packet headers or self-defined ones. Although programmable forwarding devices are available, it is difficult to use them to prototype these DCN designs, especially when self-defined headers are introduced. In this paper, we present a hardware based Configurable pAcket Forwarding Engine (CAFE) to facilitate the prototyping process. Through simple APIs, CAFE can be easily configured to forward self-defined packets, modify, insert, and delete arbitrary packet header fields without re-designing the hardware. We have implemented CAFE using NetFPGA. Evaluation demonstrates that CAFE can be easily configured and it can forward packets at line-rate.

REFERENCES

• 1: M. Al-Fares, A. Loukissas, and A. Vahdat, "A Scalable, Commodity Data Center Network Architecture," in Proc. SIGCOMM, 2008.
• 2: C. Guo, H. Wu, K. Tan, L. Shi, Y. Zhang, and S. Lu, "DCell: A Scalable and Fault Tolerant Network Structure for Data Centers," in SIGCOMM, 2008.
• 3: D. Li, C. Guo, H. Wu, K. Tan, Y. Zhang, and S. Lu, "FiConn: Using Backup Port for Server Interconnection in Data Centers," in IEEE INFOCOM, 2009.
• 4: A. Greenberg, D. Maltz, P. Patel, S. Sengupta, and P. Lahiri, "Towards a Next Generation Data Center Architecture: Scalability and Commoditization," in SIGCOMM PRESTO Workship, 2008.
• 5: C. Guo, G. Lu, D. Li, H. Wu, X. Zhang, Y. Shi, C. Tian, Y. Zhang, and S. Lu, "BCube: A High Performance, Server-centric Network Architecture for Modular Data Centers," in SIGCOMM, 2009.
• 6: J. Naous, G. Gibb, S. Bolouki, and N. McKeown, "NetFPGA: Reusable Router Architecture for Experimental Research," in PRESTO, 2008.
• 7: T. Anderson, L. Peterson, S. Shenker, and J. Turne, "Overcoming the Internet Impasse Through Virtualization," in ACM HOTNETS III, 2004.
• 8: T. Mallory and A. Kullberg, "Incremental updating of the Internet checksum," 1990. RFC1141.
• 9: M. Casado, T. Koponen, D. Moon, and S. Shenker, "Rethinking Packet Forwarding Hardware," in ACM HotNets-VII, 2008.
• 10: J.C. Mogul, P. Yalagandula, J. Tourrilhes, R. McGeer, S. Banerjee, T. Connors, and P. Sharma, "API Design Challenges for Open Router Platforms on Proprietary Hardware," in ACM HotNets-VII, 2008.
• 11: Netronome, "Network Flow Processor NFP-3200 Product Brief." http://www.netronome.com/files/file/Netronome%20NFP%20Product%20Brief%20(3-09).pdf.
• 12: C.L. Hayes and Y. Luo, "Dpico: a high speed deep packet inspection engine using compact finite automata," in ANCS, (New York, NY, USA), pp. 195--203, ACM, 2008.

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  C. Computer Systems Organization
  C.2 COMPUTER-COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
      C.2.5 Local and Wide-Area Networks
          Subjects: Ethernet (e.g., CSMA/CD)

Additional Classification:
  C. Computer Systems Organization
  C.2 COMPUTER-COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
      C.2.5 Local and Wide-Area Networks
          Subjects: High-speed (e.g., FDDI, fiber channel, ATM)
      C.2.6 Internetworking
          Subjects: Routers

General Terms:
Design

Keywords:
configurable packet forwarding engine, data center networking, netfpga