OpenFunction: An extensible data plane abstraction protocol for platform-independent software-defined middleboxes

Abstract

We propose OpenFunction, an extensible data plane abstraction protocol for platform-independent software-defined middleboxes. The main challenge is how to abstract packet operations, flow states and event generations with elements. The key decision of OpenFunction is: actions/states/events operations should be defined in a uniform pattern and independent from each other. We implemented a working SDM system including one OpenFunction controller and OpenFunction boxes based on Netmap, DPDK and FPGA to verify OpenFunction abstraction.