Hop-by-hop TCP communication as a network function - A proof-of-concept implementation

Abstract

Techniques for enabling resilient network communication over less-than- optimal communication links were studied. A testbed for low-level network behavior and link characteristic emulation was created using QEMU- virtualized GNU/Linux nodes, TAP devices and the netem Linux traffic control facilities. A proof-of-concept implementation, of configurationless, transparent hop-by-hop TCP communication as a network function was developed in C, using the Data Plane Development Kit (DPDK) in combination with the Transport Layer Development Kit (TLDK). Experiments were performed to analyze the behaviour, efficiency and benefit of the proof- of-concept implementation.