DataRouter: A Network-Layer Service for Application-Layer Forwarding

Abstract

Abstract. DataRouter forwards network layer packets using application layer tags, without requiring per-hop termination of transport protocols and the consequent reimplementation of transport services in the application. DataRouter provides network delivery based on pattern matching and string replacement. It combines a byte string as a loose source route IP option tag and regular expression routing entries to provide a new network service. DataRouter tags have a variety of forms, including fixed-length with exact matches for distributed hash tables and variable-length with regular expression matches for URL redirection. Tagged IPv6 packets traverse non-DataRouter routers transparently. On a platform forwarding IPv4 packets at 310K packets/sec., an unoptimized FreeBSD IPv4 DataRouter forwards hash-match packets at up to 270K packets/sec. (87% of max.) and pattern-match packets 155K packets/sec. (50% of max.). DataRouter thus provides a viable, higher-performance alternative to application-layer implementation of forwarding, in a generic service more interoperable with existing network and transport protocols.

Securing User-Controlled Routing Infrastructures

“…The structure of id.node depends on the underlying routing used by the particular FI; for example, it could represent the IP address of the node (e.g. DataRouter [33]), or the DHT identifier of the node (e.g. i3 [30]).…”

“…DataRouter is a forwarding engine that provides generic string matching and rewriting capabilities at the IP layer based on application-specific needs [33]. DataRouter is a high performance generic alternative to application-layer overlays.…”

“…Some examples of such routing architectures include TRIAD [6], i3 [30], NIRA [39], DataRouter [33], and Network Pointers [34]. While exposing control over routing to thirdparties departs from conventional network architecture, these proposals have shown that such control significantly increases the flexibility and extensibility of these networks.…”

“…Forwarding infrastructures typically provide user control by either allowing source-routing (such as [6], [30], [39]) or allowing users to insert forwarding state in the infrastructure (such as [30], [33], [34]). Allowing forwarding entries enables functions like mobility and multicast that are hard to achieve using source-routing alone.…”

SPINAT: Integrating IPsec into Overlay Routing

“…Using the same logic, the overlay router uses the end-point identifiers for network layer address translation (e.g. IPNL [13], DataRouter [36]). The situation is illustrated in Figure 1 a) and b).…”