The growing research and industry interest in the Internet of Things and the edge computing paradigm has increased the need for cost-efficient virtual testbeds for large-scale distributed applications. Researchers, students, and practitioners need to test and evaluate the interplay of hundreds or thousands of real software components and services connected with a realistic edge network without access to physical infrastructure. While advances in virtualization technologies have enabled parts of this, network emulation as a crucial part in the development of edge testbeds is lagging behind: As we show in this paper, NetEm, the current state-of-the-art network emulation tooling included in the Linux kernel, imposes prohibitive scalability limits. We quantify these limits, investigate possible causes, and present a way forward for network emulation in large-scale virtual edge testbeds based on eBPFs.
翻译:研究和产业界对物联网和边际计算模式的兴趣日益增长,这增加了对大规模分布式应用所需的具有成本效益的虚拟测试台的需求,研究人员、学生和从业人员需要测试和评价与现实边缘网络有关的数百或数千个实际软件组件和服务之间的相互作用,而这些软件组件和服务与没有有形基础设施的现实边缘网络有关。虽然虚拟化技术的进步使部分内容得以实现,但作为边缘测试台开发关键部分的网络模拟却落后了:正如我们本文所示,NetEm,目前包含在Linux内核中的最先进的网络模拟工具,施加了令人望而却步的可伸缩性限制。我们量化这些限制,调查可能的原因,并提出在基于eBPF的大型虚拟边缘测试台进行网络模拟的方法。