wiki:sppReport-PostGEC10

Version 3 (modified by Vic Thomas, 13 years ago) (diff)

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Internet Scale Overlay Hosting Progress Report (12/2010-3/2011)

1. Project Activities this Quarter

In this quarter, we added two more SPP nodes completing the 5 node deployment planned under this project. The additional nodes have been integrated into the testbed and applications using the full five node configuration were demonstrated at GEC-10. We have continued to provide operational support for the deployed SPPs and have worked with users to facilitate their use of the SPPs.

SPP Applications

We have worked with Brighten Godfrey of the University of Illinois to develop a new NPE fastpath for the SPPs. This implements the Illinois group's Slick Packets protocol, that allows dynamic re-routing around failed links, based on alternate path information encoded in the packet headers. Initial measurements show a substantial improvement over implementations running on a conventional processor, but a detailed performance evaluation is yet to be carried out. The new NPE fastpath was demonstrated at GEC-10.

At GEC-10, we also carried out a larger scale demonstration of our Forest overlay network. This demonstration used a new end-system emulator that behaves like a simple avatar moving around within a virtual world, while transmitting periodic status updates on region-specific multicast groups. Each emulator dynamically subscribes to multicasts for regions that are visible to it and maintains state for the avatars that are within its visibility range. The demonstration also included a monitor component and a remote graphical display giving a "birds-eye" view of the avatars moving within the virtual world. The demonstration showed 100 avatars distributed among three distinct virtual worlds, each of which used its own comtree. It made use of the full five node SPP testbed and 25 planetlab nodes.

Flow Monitoring

The flow monitoring system is now complete, but our final testing on the deployed SPPs was interrupted when the Control Processor in the Salt Lake City SPP experienced a hardware failure. We are in the process of having the CP replaced and expect to have the Salt Lake City node back in service before the end of April. At that point, we will complete our testing and deploy the flow monitoring software on the remaining SPP nodes.

Version 2 of Network Processor Datapath Software

While the software for the NPE datapath is essentially complete, we still need to make changes to the control software to allow applications to configure and use the NPE with the new fastpath. This work is now in progress and our current objective is to demonstrate NPE v2 at GEC-11.

SPP Tutorial

We gave our fourth SPP tutorial at GEC-10. More than 25 people signed up and 18 actually attended. All participants reported having a good experience and almost all of them successfully completed the hands-on exercises.

GEC-10 Preparation and Attendance

Preparation for and attendance at GEC-10 consumed about one staff-month of effort. This continues to consume a major part of our supported activity.

2. Milestones achieved

Milestone S3.b (Deployment and integration of last two SPP nodes) and Milestone S3.c (Demonstration and outreach at GEC10).

3. Deliverables made

Deployment and integration of last two SPP nodes <br> Completion of Flow Monitoring Subsystem <br> Demonstration and outreach at GEC-10

4. Project participants

Jon Turner - PI (5% support level)
Patrick Crowley - PI (unsupported)
John Dehart - technical staff (50% support level)
Jyoti Parwatikar - technical staff (10% support level)
Mike Wilson - graduate student (unsupported)

5. Publications (individual and organizational)

None yet.

6. Outreach activities

Demonstration and Tutorial at GEC-10

7. Collaborations

Completed implementation of NPE fastpath implementing the Slick Packets protocol developed by Brighten Godfrey of the University of Illinois.

Have made extensive use of PlanetLab in experimental network configuration in which SPPs serve as backbone nodes.

Have established connections between SPP nodes and the GPENI and MAX networks, but have not yet made significant use of these resources.

Have been using Plush/Gush tools for configuring SPP nodes.

Have demonstrated experiments that use combination of SPP and PlanetLab nodes.

Have had initial discussions with Jim Griffoen of the University of Kentucky, about using SPPs in support of his Post-Modern Internet Architecture.