On Hardware Programmable Network Dynamics With a Chemistry-Inspired Abstraction

Abstract

Chemical algorithms are statistical algorithms described and represented as chemical reaction networks. They are particularly attractive for traffic shaping and general control of network dynamics; they are analytically tractable, they reinforce a strict state-to-dynamics relationship, they have configurable stability properties, and they are directly implemented in statespace using a high-level (graphical) representation. In this paper, we present a direct implementation of chemical algorithms on FPGA hardware. Besides substantially improving performance, we have achieved hardware-level programmability and re-configurability of these algorithms at runtime (not interrupting servicing) and in realtime (with sub-second latency). This opens an interesting perspective for expanding the currently limited scope of software defined networking and network virtualisation solutions, to include programmable control of network dynamics.

A Survey on Data Plane Flexibility and Programmability in Software-Defined Networking

“…Inspired by the ideas of chemical reaction engineering, the realization of data plane functions using chemical algorithms (CA) was proposed in [214], [215]. It has been shown that CA can be easily and quickly modified and reprogrammed on FPGA hardware without the need for translation into an intermediate program or HDL code.…”