SharpEdge: An Asynchronous and Core-Agnostic Solution to Guarantee Bounded-Delays

TL;DR

SharpEdge is a novel network solution that guarantees bounded delays for diverse traffic types without core modifications or time synchronization, based on a new theoretical framework for bounded-delay networks.

Contribution

It introduces SharpEdge, the first scheme to ensure deterministic bounded delays with core-agnostic, asynchronous traffic shaping based on new theoretical conditions.

Findings

Supports multiple traffic classes with different delay guarantees

Operates without core network modifications

Handles periodic and bursty traffic patterns

Abstract

What are the key properties that a network should have to provide bounded-delay guarantees for the packets? In this paper, we attempt to answer this question. To that end, we explore the theory of bounded-delay networks and provide the necessary and the sufficient conditions required to have deterministic bounded-delays in the network. We prove that as long as a network is work-conserving, independent of the packet scheduling and queue management algorithms used in the switches, it is sufficient to shape the traffic~\textit{properly} at the edge of the network to meet hard bounded-delays in the network. Using the derived theorems, we present SharpEdge, a novel design to meet deterministic bounded-delays in the network. To the best of our knowledge, SharpEdge is the first scheme that can meet all following key properties: 1) it supports coexistence of different classes of traffic, while it can guarantee their different required bounded-delays 2) it does not require any changes in the core of the network, 3) it supports both periodic and bursty traffic patterns, and 4) it does not require any time synchronization between network devices.