Dynamic Network Probes: A Stepping Stone to Omni Network Visibility

Abstract: Effective SDN control relies on the network data collecting capability as well as the quality and timeliness of the data. As open programmable data plane is becoming a reality, we further enhance it with the support of runtime interactive programming in order to cope with application dynamics, optimize data plane resource allocation, and reduce control-plane processing pressure. Based on the latest technologies, we propose the Dynamic Network Probes (DNP) as a means to support real-time and on-demand network visibility. DNPs serve as an important building block of an integrated networking data analytics platform which involves the network data plane as an active component for in-network computing. In this paper, we show the types of DNPs and their role in the big picture. We have implemented an NP-based hardware prototype to demonstrate the feasibility and efficiency of DNPs. We lay out the research challenges and our future work to realize the omni network visibility based on DNPs.