| Issue |
EPJ Web of Conf.
Volume 295, 2024
26th International Conference on Computing in High Energy and Nuclear Physics (CHEP 2023)
|
|
|---|---|---|
| Article Number | 07037 | |
| Number of page(s) | 8 | |
| Section | Facilities and Virtualization | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/202429507037 | |
| Published online | 06 May 2024 | |
https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/202429507037
P4flow: A software-defined networking approach with programmable switches for accounting and forwarding IPv6 packets with user-defined flow label tags
CERN - Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire, Esplanade des Particules 1, 1211 Meyrin, Geneva, Switzerland
email: firstname.lastname@cern.ch
Published online: 6 May 2024
A comprehensive analysis of the HEP (High Energy Physics) experiment traffic across LHCONE (Large Hadron Collider Open Network Environment) and other networks, is essential for immediate network optimisation (for example by the NOTED project) and highly desirable for long-term network planning. Such an analysis requires two steps: tagging of network packets to indicate the type and owner of the traffic being carried and then processing of the tagged packets. The RNTWG (Research Network Technical Working Group) has defined a specification to identify the experiment and the application that originates a given network flow, named scitags (Scientific Network Tags) that is applied to the flow label field of the IPv6 header. We report here on the second step: processing of packets tagged according to this specification.
We developed P4flow as a software-defined networking approach by using P4 (Programming Protocol-Independent Packet Processors), a language for programming the data plane of network devices to accounting and process IPv6 packets with a scitags-based stamp in the flow label field, to understand the network utilisation and the applications used by the WLCG (Worldwide Large Hadron Collider Computing Grid) sites. With P4flow, and exploiting the control plane capabilities provided by RARE/FreeRtr (an Open Source Network Operating System developed by the GÉANT community), we cannot only generate statistics concerning the traffic per experiment and application but can also, using an Intel Tofino P4-programmable ASIC Ethernet Switch, decide how to forward traffic matching defined flow labels. This latter capability is particularly interesting as we prepare for a future where LHC experiments will be sharing network links with other major science collaborations such as SKA and ITER.
© The Authors, published by EDP Sciences, 2024
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Current usage metrics show cumulative count of Article Views (full-text article views including HTML views, PDF and ePub downloads, according to the available data) and Abstracts Views on Vision4Press platform.
Data correspond to usage on the plateform after 2015. The current usage metrics is available 48-96 hours after online publication and is updated daily on week days.
Initial download of the metrics may take a while.