VNF-Cache: An In-Network Key-Value Store Cache Based on Network Function Virtualization

TL;DR

VNF-Cache is an in-network key-value store cache leveraging NFV-COIN technology to reduce response times and increase request processing for geographically distributed databases.

Contribution

The paper introduces VNF-Cache, a novel NFV-COIN-based caching service that operates within the network to improve data access efficiency for remote key-value stores.

Findings

Significant reduction in response time.

Increased requests processed per second.

Effective in geographically dispersed environments.

Abstract

With the exponential growth of the amount of data available on the Internet, optimizing the response time and resource usage for data access becomes essential. Caches are an effective solution that brings data closer to clients, eliminating repetitive requests to servers. This paper presents VNF-Cache, a caching service for geographically remote key-value databases. VNF-Cache is an NFV-COIN (Network Function Virtualization-Computing In The Network) service, a technology undergoing standardization by the IETF that enables the implementation of arbitrary services directly in the network. VNF-Cache intercepts network packets, processes, stores, and sends values directly to clients when possible. Through a proof-of-concept implementation and experiments conducted with geographically dispersed servers in Brazil, the United States, and Japan, significant reductions in response time and increases in the number of requests processed per second were observed.