Home // ICNS 2011, The Seventh International Conference on Networking and Services // View article

Network Interface Grouping in the Linux Kernel

Authors:
Vlad Dogaru
Octavian Purdila
Nicolae Țăpuș

Keywords: Linux, kernel, network, device, scalability, grouping, iproute2

Abstract:
The Linux kernel is a prime field for implementing experiments, many of which are related to networking. In this work we tackle a part of the network scalability issues of the kernel. More specifically, we devise a means of efficiently manipulating large numbers of network interfaces. Currently, the only approach to handling multiple interfaces is through repeated userspace calls, which add significant overhead. We propose the concept of network device groups, which are completely transparent to the majority of the networking subsystem. These serve for simple manipulation of large number of interfaces through a single userspace command, which greatly improves responsiveness. Changes are proposed both in kernel and userspace, using the iproute2 software package as support. Improvements in speed are visible, with changing parameters of thousands of interfaces taking less than a second, as opposed to over 10 seconds using a conventional approach. Implementation is simple, unintrusive and, most importantly, user-defined. This leaves room for future improvements which use the group infrastructure, some of which have already been proposed by third parties.

Pages: 131 to 135

Copyright: Copyright (c) IARIA, 2011

Publication date: May 22, 2011

Published in: conference

ISSN: 2308-4006

ISBN: 978-1-61208-133-5

Location: Venice/Mestre, Italy

Dates: from May 22, 2011 to May 27, 2011