NFV‐FD: Implementation of a failure detector using network virtualization technology. Issue 6 (30th August 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Turchetti, Rogerio C.; Duarte Jr., Elias P.
• Other Names: Badonnel Rémi guestEditor.; Kinoshita Kazuhiko guestEditor.; Tuncer Daphné guestEditor.; Song Sejun guestEditor.
• Is Part Of: International journal of network management. Volume 27:Issue 6(2017)
• Page Start: n/a
• Page End: n/a
• Publication Date: 2017-08-30
• Subjects: failure detector -- network function virtualization -- network monitoring; Computer networks -- Management -- Periodicals; 004.6
• DOI: 10.1002/nem.1988
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1055-7148

Abstract

Summary: A failure detector (FD) is a classic distributed systems service that can be used to monitor processes of any network application. Failure detectors provide process state information: A process is reported to be either correct or suspected to have crashed. In this work, we propose the implementation of a process monitoring service using Network Function Virtualization (NFV) in an OpenFlow network. The NFV is a technology that uses software virtualization techniques to drastically reduce the cost of deploying and managing network functions that are usually available as middleboxes. We describe NFV‐FD, a network service that provides information about the state of both processes and links. The NFV‐FD relies on an OpenFlow controller from which monitoring information is obtained. We investigate different ways to implement NFV‐FD. We evaluate the performance impact of monitoring by implementing the virtual function both within and on a separate host from the controller. Then we compare an implementation based on a traditional virtual machine with another implementation based on containers. Experimental results are reported not only in terms of performance, ie, the amount of resources required by NFV‐FD, but also for the quality of service provided by the failure detection and notification functions as they are used to deploy a reliable broadcast service. Abstract : In this work, we propose the network function virtualization‐failure detector (NFV‐FD): an NFV‐based implementation of the classical distributed systems abstraction known as failure detectors. NFV‐FD uses information obtained from an OpenFlow controller to monitor processes and determine their state. In addition, NFV‐FD also provide information about the state of communication links and process reachability. We describe several alternative to implement NFV‐FD: The network function can be implemented within the controller or at a separate host. Furthermore, we also compared implementations using traditional virtual machines and containers.