Changes between Version 31 and Version 32 of SCAFFOLD


Ignore:
Timestamp:
06/03/11 15:35:08 (13 years ago)
Author:
mfreed@cs.princeton.edu
Comment:

Updated to project change.

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  • SCAFFOLD

    v31 v32  
    77== Project Title ==
    88
    9 A SCAFFOLD for GENI-based Distributed Services[[BR]]
    10 a.k.a. SCAFFOLD
     9A Service Access Layer for GENI-based Distributed Services[[BR]]
     10a.k.a. SCAFFOLD, Serval
    1111
    1212=== Technical Contacts ===
     
    2828== Scope ==
    2929
    30 Online services, replicated on multiple servers in different datacenters, have
    31 (at best) a loose, and often transient, association with specific end-hosts or
    32 locations.  Yet, today, these services rely on host-centric networking
    33 primitives designed decades ago, retrofitted with various "hacks" (e.g., ARP
    34 spoofing and DNS with small TTLs).[[BR]]
     30Historically, Internet services provide clients with access to the
     31resources of a particular host. However, today's services are no
     32longer defined by a single host or confined to a fixed location. Yet,
     33the network architecture continues to impose an unfortunate coupling
     34between hosts and services by binding connections to
     35topology-dependent addresses---complicating everything from server
     36replication, load balancing, and virtual-machine migration, to client
     37mobility and multi-homing. [[BR]]
    3538
    36 This project proposes a network architecture
    37 that meets the needs of these online services.  SCAFFOLD (Service-Centric
    38 Architecture For Flexible Object Localization and Distribution) moves from
    39 human-readable host names to machine-readable service identifiers, from
    40 individual packets to flows, and from unicast communication to anycast.
    41 SCAFFOLD hides network addresses from applications to enable dynamic remapping
    42 as end-points change, (e.g., due to virtual-machine migration, failover, or
    43 device mobility), and directs traffic based on successively-refined identifiers
    44 to scale routing and limit churn.  While SCAFFOLD can be viewed as a
    45 clean-slate Internet architecture, we primarily investigate how a single
    46 organization can apply our solution today to host online services at multiple
    47 datacenters. This project entails the design, implementation, and evaluation of a socket
    48 API and network stack for end-hosts, and a network infrastructure built using
    49 OpenFlow and NOX.[[BR]]
     39In this project, we propose a new service access layer that redefines the
     40interaction between the network and transport layers. This layer
     41provides the "thin waist" needed to enable direct communication on
     42topology-independent service names, decouple service connections from
     43network identifiers, directly support multi-homing and mobility, and
     44enhance the network's awareness of service availability.  [[BR]]
    5045
    51 SCAFFOLD will be a distributed service on GENI that serves as a
    52 platform for deploying other user-facing services, thereby lowering the
    53 barrier for others creating new distributed services. SCAFFOLD will
    54 leverage GENI-related prototyping efforts such as !OpenFlow switches,
    55 the NOX controller, the VINI backbone, the BGP multiplexer and the
    56 PlanetLab control framework. The project will also use the resulting SCAFFOLD prototype itself to build
    57 several services for GENI, in order to demonstrate its utility.
     46We investigate Serval, a complete architecture built around this new layering that
     47handles server replication, network dynamics, and diverse service
     48discovery techniques, while ensuring scalability, security, and the
     49efficient handling of churn.  By running squarely above the network
     50layer, Serval is backwards compatible with today's IP networks.[[BR]]
     51
     52Serval is an experiment to be deployed on top of GENI aggregates, as well
     53as provide a platform for future GENI experimenters to more easily deploy
     54mobile and distributed services.
     55
    5856
    5957=== Current Capabilities ===