CANEs: Composable Active Network Elements
Quarterly Status Report
Period: June 11, 1999 - September 11, 1999
Participants
Georgia Tech Faculty and Staff:
University of Kentucky Faculty:
GTE Laboratories:
Research Assistants:
- Samrat Bhattacharjee (GT)
- Youngsu Chae (GT)
- Richard Liston (GT)
- Shashidar Merugu (GT)
- Amit Sehgal (UK)
- Srinivasan Venkatramen (UK)
Accomplishments in the Quarter
We conducted a set of experiments on the performance of Bowman,
our NodeOS that is constructed by layering
active-networking functionality over UNIX.
The packet processing path implemented in Bowman incorporates an
efficient and flexible packet classification algorithm, supports
multi-threaded per-flow processing, and utilizes real-time processor
scheduling to achieve deterministic performance in user-space.
We found that Bowman was able to sustain
100 Mbps throughput while forwarding IP packets over fast Ethernets.
This work was submitted (and subsequently accepted) to Infocom'00.
We dedicated a considerable amount of effort during the quarter to
preparations for the September demos in Arlington, VA. We were in
frequent contact with Team 4 members at U. of Massachusetts and TASC,
as well as occasional contact with team members at U. of Illinois and
UC-Santa Cruz. We collaborated closely with UMass/TASC on the
implementation of their AER protocol in the CANEs EE using Bowman as
the NodeOS.
We implemented a new application within CANEs. Our Iterative
Gather-Compute-Scatter (IGCS) implementation provides
a method to query and synthesize network information with
constrained programmability. Such a capability is important
for situations in which the usual "black box" interface to network
topology is limited. Examples of such
situations include deployment of active networking functionality to
strategic points (e.g., upstream from a lossy link) or the
construction of a secure overlay topology on a network with selective
support for IP security. We have tested the method on
an example that queries the links on a path, and we have compared
the active solution to an end-to-end solution.
This work was submitted (and subsequently accepted) to OpenArch'00.
The senior student on the CANEs project, Bobby Bhattacharjee,
completed his PhD at Georgia Tech and started as an Assistant
Professor at the University of Maryland.
Publications and Presentations
- Bhattacharjee presented his thesis defense entitled
"Active Networking: Architecture, Composition, and Applications"
at Georgia Tech in July 1999.
Travel
- Calvert traveled to Georgia Tech in August 1999
for a CANEs group meeting.
- Merugu and Zegura attended Sigcomm'99 in Cambridge, MA
in August 1999.
- Mark Keaton of TASC traveled to Georgia Tech in September to collaborate
on coding the AER protocols within the CANEs environment.
Administrative Issues
- We requested additional funds for equipment necessary to
set up multi-node topologies as needed for the DARPA demos.
Doug Maughan approved $20,000 in additional money, to be included
on the new ActiveCast contract.
Plans for Next Quarter
- Complete implementation for demo in September.
Coordinate equipment shipments, setup and installation
at demo site. Prepare presentation for demo.
- Continue performance testing and improvements to the
Bowman NodeOS. Prepare camera ready version of work for
Infocom'00.
- Add robustness to the implementation of IGCS.
Prepare camera ready version of work for OpenArch'00.
- Organize two Active Networking sessions for conferences.
The first of these is a session on Active Networks for OpenSig'99,
to be held at Carnegie Mellon University in October 1999
(Zegura). The second is a panel on Active Networks for ICNP'99
to be held in Toronto in November 1999 (Calvert).
- Lead discussions of the Architecture (Calvert) and
Composable Services (Zegura) documents at the November PI
meeting in Albuquerque.
- Release Odyssey, including the Bowman NodeOS and
the CANEs EE, to the Active Networking research community.
Ellen Zegura