Snow on Silk: A NodeOS in the Linux Kernel

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.