Multi-domain network infrastructure based on P4 programmable devices for Digital Data Marketplaces

Abstract

There are many organizations interested in sharing data with others, and they can do this only if a multi-domain secure platform is available. Such platforms, often referred to as Digital Data Marketplaces (DDMs), require that all the transactions follow the pre-defined policies that are established by the participating parties i.e, domains. However, building a multi-domain network infrastructure in which each domain can manage its own connectivity while at the same time all of the transactions follow the sharing agreements is still a challenge. In this paper, we introduce a multi-domain containerized DDM that is built upon a P4-based network. It can handle the communication of multiple domains and guarantee that the operation of transactions is based on the pre-defined policies. We also studied the setup performance by defining a model which we demonstrated follows the real measurements, and we can use for decision making. The results also show the low overhead of using P4 switch in network setup time. In addition, we conducted a security evaluation which showed that our P4-based network setup is secure against most types of attacks.