Gridiron: A Technique for Augmenting Cloud Workloads with Network Bandwidth Requirements

TL;DR

Gridiron is a novel technique that models and augments cloud workload traces with network bandwidth requirements, enabling better estimation and scheduling of network resources for cloud applications.

Contribution

It introduces a method to derive inter-VM network bandwidth demands using Amdahl's law and applies it to generate realistic network workload traces for cloud applications.

Findings

Enables estimation of network bandwidth demands for cloud workloads.

Provides realistic network workload traces for scheduler evaluation.

Facilitates better resource planning in cloud datacenters.

Abstract

Cloud applications use more than just server resources, they also require networking resources. We propose a new technique to model network bandwidth demand of networked cloud applications. Our technique, Gridiron, augments VM workload traces from Azure cloud with network bandwidth requirements. The key to the Gridiron technique is to derive inter-VM network bandwidth requirements using Amdahl's second law. As a case study, we use Gridiron to generate realistic traces with network bandwidth demands for a distributed machine learning training application. Workloads generated with Gridiron allow datacenter operators to estimate the network bandwidth demands of cloud applications and enable more realistic cloud resource scheduler evaluation.