WUSTL CSE 567M - Case Study: Performance Analysis of a Diversified Router

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http://www.cse.wustl.edu/~jain/cse567-06/ftp/router/index.html 1 of 13Case Study:Performance Analysis of a Diversified RouterBrandon Heller, [email protected]: Routers are responsible for forwarding the packets in today's Internet from source to destination.Unfortunately, the Internet architecture has become resistant to change, in a way that kills new innovation.One potential solution to this problem is the concept of Diversified Networking, which uses virtualization at the network layer to enable multiple concurrent networks with minimal design constraints. WashingtonUniversity is building a prototype diversified router on network processors, which are highly parallel processors optimized for network tasks. We present a survey of benchmarks for network processors, anddescribe performance considerations for related systems. We also present an experimental design forevaluating those factors affecting performance, along with preliminary results and analysis, for standard IPv4packets.Keywords: diversified router, diversified networking, network processor, network processor benchmark,routerTable of Contents:1. Introduction2. Network Diversification2.1. Typical Router2.2. Network Processors2.3. Diversified Router3. Network Processing Benchmarks3.1. CommBench3.2. NetBench3.3. NpBench3.4. PacketBench4. Related Router Systems4.1. PC-based4.1.1. PlanetLab4.1.2. PL-VINI4.1.3. Click modular router4.2. NP-based4.2.1. NP-Click4.2.2. ShaRE5. Performance Analysis5.1. Simulation Setup5.2. Experimental Setup5.3. Experimental Results5.4. Other Planned Experiments6. Summaryhttp://www.cse.wustl.edu/~jain/cse567-06/ftp/router/index.html 2 of 13References1.0 IntroductionWhen sometime mentions the word �Internet? they�re probably referring to today�s mix of end systemsand routers, all communicating over the IPv4 internetwork protocol. IPv4 is now over thirty years old, and isreally starting to show its age. We�re running low on unique Internet addresses, have hacked-onmechanisms for ensuring quality of service, and have poor security. The cost to fix these deficiencies is sohigh that we�re forced to live with these issues. Or are we? Network diversification presents one path tochange. It enables concurrently running architectures over a fixed substrate, through virtualized resources.Tests for future internet protocols can be done at planet-scale more easily by network researchers, oralternately, a virtualized platform may become the next Internet and enable any number of customizedinternet protocols.Section 2 will describe in more detail the concept on Network Diversification. Section 3 will then describenetwork processing benchmarks, all which could eventually be run in a diversified network. Section 4 willcover related systems, both PC and NP based. Section 5 will describe experiments to analyze the currentDiversified Router�s performance, and Section 6 will summarize these results.2.0 Network DiversificationFigure 1: Diversified Networkused with permission from Jon TurnerDiversified networks consist of a shared physical substrate, virtual routers (metarouters), and virtual links(metalinks), as shown in Figure 1. Virtualizing, or sharing the resources of routers, enables smooth andincremental upgrades to new network services. Although this architecture may sound foreign, the substratehttp://www.cse.wustl.edu/~jain/cse567-06/ftp/router/index.html 3 of 13portion of the network is designed with similar components and techniques to today�s networks. Eachrouter in the substrate does the same general operations as a vanilla IPv4 router.The diversified network idea will be integrated into the upcoming GENI project (Global Environment for Network Innovation), a shared testbed to be available to all network researchers. Before GENI can be built,the substrate components must be demonstrated correct, be of reasonable cost, and perform at high speeds.Washington University is building the Diversified Router to be one such prototype substrate component. Bybeing built on high-speed Network Processors (NPs), the speed should be high, and the cost not significantly higher than a regular multi-core x86 server. Although one of the main selling points of the Diversified Routerwill be its ability to run multiple "slices" of a network, each with separate bandwidth provisioning and different services, all the tests in this document will focus on a regular IPv4 router. IPv4 is well-known, willremain dominant in the years to come, and provides a nice base of comparison against existing systems.2.1 Typical RouterFigure2: Typical RouterIn general, a router receives a packet, looks up its next hop, and forwards the packet. Figure 2 shows a blockdiagram of a router's operations. The vast majority of traffic passes through the fast path of a router, alsocalled the data plane. Each packet is received by a mix of hardware and software that converts physical-layerinformation, such as photons or electrical impulses, to a packet format, typically Ethernet, in the Receiveblock. The Ethernet header is first validated, then stripped from the packet, in the Ethernet Decapsulateblock. Next up is the IP header, which must also be validated, as per RFC1812, Requirements for IPv4Routers, in the Parse block [RFC1812]. A lookup key is then extracted from the packet, which generallyincludes the destination IP address and source and destination ports, in the Lookup block. The lookup resultincludes the port on which the packet may leave, as well as an action to take upon the packet.On occasion, the lookup will fail, forcing the packet to go through a separate exception path. The exceptionpath leads to a control plane, where higher-level decisions for packet forwarding are made. In the fast-pathHeader Format block, the IP header is modified with the new destination and a new Ethernet header isconstructed. The packet is then sent to the Queue Manager (QM) block, which ensures all output ports aretreated fairly, then sent out a physical port by the Transmit Block. The data plane portion of a router must beextremely fast, as routers are performance-specified by the rate at which they forward minimum-sized datapackets. In the case of a 10Gb/s router, over 16M minimum-sized Ethernet packets must be forwarded everysecond! Achieving these speeds requires specialized hardware, which is where network processors come in.2.2 Network Processorshttp://www.cse.wustl.edu/~jain/cse567-06/ftp/router/index.html 4 of 13Figure2:


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