OpenBox: Enabling innovation in middlebox applications

Anat Bremler-Barr, Yotam Harchol, David Hay

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

18 Scopus citations

Abstract

Contemporary networks contain many different kind of middleboxes that perform variety of advanced network functions. Currently, a special box is tailored to provide each such function. These special boxes are usually proprietary, and operators control over them is limited to the set of capabilities defined by the provider of each box. Nonetheless, many middleboxes perform very similar tasks. In this paper we present OpenBox: a logically-centralized framework that makes advanced packet processing and monitoring easier, faster, more scalable, flexible, and innovative. OpenBox decouples the control plane of middleboxes from their data plane, and unifies the data plane of multiple middlebox applications using entities called service instances. On top of the centralized control plane everyone can develop OpenBox applications. An OpenBox application, formerly implemented as a separate middlebox, instructs the data plane how to process packets in order to achieve its intended function. OpenBox service instances reside in data plane and process packets according to policies defined by the control plane. They can be implemented in software or use specialized hardware.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationHotMiddlebox 2015 - Proceedings of the 2015 ACM SIGCOMM Workshop on Hot Topics in Middleboxes and Network Function Virtualization, Part of SIGCOMM 2015
PublisherAssociation for Computing Machinery, Inc
Pages67-72
Number of pages6
ISBN (Electronic)9781450335409
DOIs
StatePublished - 21 Aug 2015
Event2nd ACM SIGCOMM Workshop on Hot Topics in Middleboxes and Network Function Virtualization, HotMiddlebox 2015 - London, United Kingdom
Duration: 21 Aug 2015 → …

Publication series

NameHotMiddlebox 2015 - Proceedings of the 2015 ACM SIGCOMM Workshop on Hot Topics in Middleboxes and Network Function Virtualization, Part of SIGCOMM 2015

Conference

Conference2nd ACM SIGCOMM Workshop on Hot Topics in Middleboxes and Network Function Virtualization, HotMiddlebox 2015
Country/TerritoryUnited Kingdom
CityLondon
Period21/08/15 → …

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 ACM.

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