Benchmarking Virtual Switches in the Open Platform for NFV (OPNFV)
RFC 8204
Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) M. Tahhan
Request for Comments: 8204 B. O'Mahony
Category: Informational Intel
ISSN: 2070-1721 A. Morton
AT&T Labs
September 2017
Benchmarking Virtual Switches in the Open Platform for NFV (OPNFV)
Abstract
This memo describes the contributions of the Open Platform for NFV
(OPNFV) project on Virtual Switch Performance (VSPERF), particularly
in the areas of test setups and configuration parameters for the
system under test. This project has extended the current and
completed work of the Benchmarking Methodology Working Group in the
IETF and references existing literature. The Benchmarking
Methodology Working Group has traditionally conducted laboratory
characterization of dedicated physical implementations of
internetworking functions. Therefore, this memo describes the
additional considerations when virtual switches are implemented on
general-purpose hardware. The expanded tests and benchmarks are also
influenced by the OPNFV mission to support virtualization of the
"telco" infrastructure.
Status of This Memo
This document is not an Internet Standards Track specification; it is
published for informational purposes.
This document is a product of the Internet Engineering Task Force
(IETF). It represents the consensus of the IETF community. It has
received public review and has been approved for publication by the
Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG). Not all documents
approved by the IESG are a candidate for any level of Internet
Standard; see Section 2 of RFC 7841.
Information about the current status of this document, any errata,
and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at
https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8204.
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RFC 8204 Benchmarking vSwitches September 2017
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.1. Requirements Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.2. Abbreviations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2. Scope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
3. Benchmarking Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
3.1. Comparison with Physical Network Functions . . . . . . . 5
3.2. Continued Emphasis on Black-Box Benchmarks . . . . . . . 6
3.3. New Configuration Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
3.4. Flow Classification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
3.5. Benchmarks Using Baselines with Resource Isolation . . . 9
4. VSPERF Specification Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
5. 3x3 Matrix Coverage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
5.1. Speed of Activation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
5.2. Accuracy of Activation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
5.3. Reliability of Activation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
5.4. Scale of Activation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
5.5. Speed of Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
5.6. Accuracy of Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
5.7. Reliability of Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
5.8. Scalability of Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
5.9. Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
6. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
7. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
7.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
7.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
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