Random Linear Network Coding on Programmable Switches

TL;DR

This paper introduces a P4-based implementation of random linear network coding on programmable switches, aiming to enhance network throughput, robustness, and security with practical performance under hardware constraints.

Contribution

It presents the first hardware-accelerated, production-level data plane for network coding using programmable switches, overcoming previous software limitations.

Findings

Demonstrates feasibility of network coding on P4 switches

Achieves promising performance within hardware constraints

Enables payload combination and Galois field operations in hardware

Abstract

By extending the traditional store-and-forward mechanism, network coding has the capability to improve a network's throughput, robustness, and security. Given the fundamentally different packet processing required by this new paradigm and the inflexibility of hardware, existing solutions are based on software. As a result, they have limited performance and scalability, creating a barrier to its wide-spread adoption. By leveraging the recent advances in programmable networking hardware, in this paper we propose a random linear network coding data plane written in P4, as a first step towards a production-level platform. Our solution includes the ability to combine the payload of multiple packets and of executing the required Galois field operations, and shows promise to be practical even under the strict memory and processing constraints of switching hardware.