High-performing scale-out solution for deep packet processing via adaptive load-balancing

Abstract

We propose a scale-out solution for deep packet processing (DPP) appliances, which uses a standard Ethernet switch in combination with a load balancing controller. The majority of the data-plane traffic is distributed via the switch's built-in traffic distribution function and no connection state is kept. If the load balancing controller detects a skew in the load of the DPP appliances, it updates the traffic rules in the switch to redirect new connections to less busy DPP appliances. This adaptive solution is beneficial for load-balancing at high data rates because state is kept for only the redirected connections. For typical traffic patterns, our solution reduces the packet drops with minimal connection redirection. We show an example capture, where we are able to improve the packet drop rate by 94.8% with only 3% of the connections being redirected.