Scalable Network Function Virtualization for Heterogeneous Middleboxes

Over the past decade, a wide-ranging collection of network functions in middleboxes has been used to accommodate the needs of network users. Although the use of general-purpose processors has been shown to be feasible for this purpose, the serial nature of microprocessors limits network functional virtualization (NFV) performance. In this paper, we describe a new heterogeneous hardware-software approach to NFV construction that provides scalability and programmability, while supporting significant hardware-level parallelism and reconfiguration. Our computing platform uses both field-programmable gate arrays (FPGA) and microprocessors to implement numerous NFV operations that can be dynamically customized to specific network flow needs. As the number of required functions and their characteristics change, the hardware in the FPGA is automatically reconfigured to support the updated requirements. Traffic management and hardware reconfiguration functions are performed by a global coordinator which allows for the rapid sharing of middlebox state and continuous evaluation of network function needs. To evaluate our approach, a series of software tools and NFV modules have been implemented. Our system is shown to be scalable for collections of network functions exceeding one million shared states.