Addressing data compatibility on programmable network platforms

Large-scale applications require the efficient exchange of data across their distributed components, including data from heterogeneous sources and to widely varying clients. Inherent to such data exchanges are (1) discrepancies among the data representations used by sources, clients, or intermediate application components (e.g., due to natural mismatches or due to dynamic component evolution), and (2) requirements to route, combine, or otherwise manipulate data as it is being transferred. As a result, there is an ever growing need for data conversion services, handled by stubs in application servers, by middleware or messaging services, by the operating system, or by the network. This paper's goal is to demonstrate and evaluate the ability of modern network processors to efficiently address data compatibility issues, when data is 'in transit' between application-level services. Toward this end, we present the design and implementation of a network-level execution environment that permits systems to dynamically deploy and configure application- level data conversion services 'into' the network infrastructure. Experimental results obtained with a prototype implementation on Intel's IXP2400 network processors include measurements of XML-like data format conversions implemented with efficient binary data formats.