Transparent acceleration of software packet forwarding using netmap

—Software packet forwarding has been used for a long time in general purpose operating systems. While interesting for prototyping or on slow links, it is not considered a viable solution at very high packet rates, where various sources of overhead (particularly, the packet I/O mechanisms) get in the way of achieving good performance. Having recently developed a novel framework for packet I/O on general purpose operating systems, we have investigated how much the removal of this bottlenecks can improve the performance of software packet processing. The problem is of interest because software switches/routers are widely used, and they are becoming inadequate with the increasing use of

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2012
• Where: INFOCOM
• Authors: Luigi Rizzo, Marta Carbone, Gaetano Catalli
• Keywords: Communications, INFOCOM 2012, Software Packet, Software Switches, Viable Solution