Veriflow: Verifying network-wide invariants in real time

Ahmed Khurshid, Wenxuan Zhou, Matthew Caesar, P. Brighten Godfrey

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

Abstract

Networks are complex and prone to bugs. Existing tools that check configuration Hies and data-plane state operate offline at timescales of seconds to hours, and cannot detect or prevent bugs as they arise. Is it possible to check network-wide invariants in real time. as the network state evolves? The key challenge here is to achieve extremely low latency during the checks so that network performance is not affected. In this paper, we present a preliminary design, VeriFlow, which suggests that this goal is achievable. VeriFlow is a layer between a software-defined networking controller and network devices that checks for network-wide invariant violations dynamically as each forwarding rule is inserted. Based on an implementation using a Mininet OpenFlow network and Route Views trace data, we find that VeriFlow can perform rigorous checking within hundreds of microseconds per rule insertion.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationProceedings of the ACM SIGCOMM 2012 and Best Papers of the Co-located Workshops
Pages467-472
Number of pages6
Edition4
DOIs
StatePublished - 2012
EventAnnual Conference of the ACM Special Interest Group on Data Communication on the Applications, Technologies, Architectures, and Protocols for Computer Communication, ACM SIGCOMM 2012 - Helsinki, Finland
Duration: Aug 13 2012Aug 17 2012

Publication series

NameComputer Communication Review
Number4
Volume42
ISSN (Print)0146-4833
ISSN (Electronic)1943-5819

Other

OtherAnnual Conference of the ACM Special Interest Group on Data Communication on the Applications, Technologies, Architectures, and Protocols for Computer Communication, ACM SIGCOMM 2012
Country/TerritoryFinland
CityHelsinki
Period8/13/128/17/12

Keywords

  • Debugging
  • Forwarding
  • Openflow
  • Real time
  • Software-defined networking

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Software
  • Computer Networks and Communications

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