Snow on Silk: A NodeOS in the Linux Kernel

Abstract

Abstract. Transferring active networking technology from the research arena to everyday deployment on desktop and edge router nodes, requires a NodeOS design that simultaneously meets three goals: (1) be embedded within a wide-spread, open source operating system; (2) allow non-active applications and regular operating system operation to proceed in a regular manner, unhindered by the active networking component; (3) offer performance competitive with that of networking stacks of general purpose operating systems. Previous NodeOS systems, Bowman, Janos, AMP and Scout, only partially addressed these goals. Our contribution lies in the design and implementation of such a system, a NodeOS within the Linux kernel, and the demonstration of competitive performance for medium and larger packet sizes. We also illustrate how such a design easily renders to the deployment of other networking architectures, such as peer-to-peer networks and extensible routers.

Software Defined Networking Concepts

“…At the bottom layer sits an operating system (NodeOS) multiplexing the node's communication, memory and computational resources among the packet flows traversing the node. Various projects proposing different implementations of the NodeOS exist, with some prominent examples being the NodeOS project [8] and Bowman [9]. At the next layer exist one or more execution environments providing a model for writing active networking applications, including ANTS [10] and PLAN [11].…”

Building programmable wireless networks: an architectural survey

“…In the capsule model, special packets, or flows that consisted of actual program codes, were to be installed by controllers on smart nodes that ran a particular operating system (Node OS [26]). The NodeOS project [27] focused on incorporating active networking technology into the Linux kernel while allowing regular non-active applications, and operating systems operations, to run unhindered without any significant performance penalty. The capsule approach attracted interest mostly since it could provide a clean method of upgrading data plane processing along an entire network path [18] [25].…”

Distributed workflow management for large-scale grid environments

“…Other active networks frameworks are either bundled deeper with the operating system kernel, e.g., Silk [12], or as loose as Janos, e.g., AMP [6], which runs on top of various operating system.…”