Title
Kafe: Can OS Kernels Forward Packets Fast Enough for Software Routers?
Abstract
It is widely believed that software routers based on commodity operating systems cannot deliver high-speed packet processing, and a number of alternative approaches (including user-space network stacks) have been proposed. This paper revisits the inefficiency of kernel-level packet processing inside modern OS-based software routers and explores whether a redesign of kernel network stacks can improve the incompetence. We present a case contrary to the belief through a redesign: Kafe—a kernel-based advanced forwarding engine that can process packets as fast as user-space network stacks. The Kafe neither adds any new API nor depends on proprietary hardware features, but the Kafe outperforms Linux by seven times and RouteBricks by three times. The current implementation of the Kafe can forward 64-byte IPv4 packets at 28.2 Gbps using eight cores running at 2.6 GHz. Our evaluation results show that the Kafe achieves similar packet forwarding performance to Intel DPDK while consuming much less CPU and memory resources.
Year
DOI
Venue
2018
10.1109/TNET.2018.2879752
IEEE/ACM Trans. Netw.
Keywords
Field
DocType
Kernel,Linux,Hardware,Task analysis,Resource management,IP networks
Resource management,Kernel (linear algebra),IPv4,Proprietary hardware,Computer science,Network packet,Computer network,Packet processing,Software,Packet forwarding
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
26
6
1063-6692
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
0
0.34
0
Authors
5
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Cheol-Ho Hong111510.66
Kyungwoon Lee232.41
Jaehyun Hwang312110.72
hyunchan park4113.23
Chuck Yoo5299.49