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SUMMARY:Performance Contracts for Software Network Functions - Rishabh Iye
 r (EPFL)
DTSTART:20190212T160000Z
DTEND:20190212T170000Z
UID:TALK120367@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Marco Caballero
DESCRIPTION:Abstract:\nWhile software network functions (NFs) promise grea
 t flexibility and\neasy deployment of network services\, they face the cha
 llenge of\nunpredictable performance. We propose Bolt\, a technique and to
 ol for\npredicting the performance of the entire software stack of an NF\n
 comprising the core NF logic\, DPDK packet processing framework\, and\nthe
  NIC driver. Bolt takes as input the NF implementation and\ngenerates a pe
 rformance contract that provides\, for any arbitrary\npacket scenario\, a 
 precise characterization of the NF's performance.\nUnder the covers\, Bolt
  leverages a state-based demarcation of NFs and\ncombines a pre-analysis o
 f stateful data structures with automated\nsymbolic execution of the state
 less NF code. Performance contracts\nallow scrutiny of NF performance with
  a fine level of granularity\,\nenabling network developers and operators 
 to understand the\nperformance of the NF in the face of any workload\, whe
 ther typical\,\nexceptional\, or adversarial. We evaluate Bolt on four rea
 listic\nNFs---a NAT\, a Maglev-like load balancer\, an LPM Router\, and a 
 MAC\nbridge---and show that Bolt's performance contracts predict the\ndyna
 mic instruction count and memory accesses of the NF to within a\nmaximum o
 f 7% of real executions\, for all NFs and traffic classes\nanalyzed.
LOCATION:FW26\, Computer Laboratory\, William Gates Building
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