6G-life

With the advent of research on the next generation of
mobile communications 6G, we are engaged in exploring
architecture extensions for Smart Network Interface Cards
(SmartNICs). To enable adaptive, energy-efficient and
low-latency network interfaces, we are prototyping a
custom packet processing pipeline on FPGA-based NICs,
partially based on the open-nic project
(https://github.com/Xilinx/open-nic).

To improve the performance and energy efficiency of a
modern server, SmartNICs can be used to preprocess
incoming packets and gather characteristics on traffic and processing requirements. This information can be used to change the processing behavior of the server and react to the dynamic network and processing requirements. Hereby, a decisive task is the performant and accurate tracking of key metrics to characterize the current state of the server, both regarding the incoming traffic and the computational aspects in the processing resources of the server. The current state of the prototype contains monitoring and decision making logic for load balancing and power management of Linux servers. 

Currently, the prototype is limited to homogenous workloads, i.e., assumes each packet incurs the same workload. The goal of this work is to extend the SmartNIC with the required functionality to differentiate between flows with varying processing demand and the mechanisms to integrate this information in the decision-making of load balancing and power management. Initially, this could be realized with a fixed weighting between packet rate and expected workload for each flow, but should be followed up with literature research and potential exploration of workload prediction based on packet header information.

Voraussetzungen

To improve the performance and energy efficiency of a
modern server, SmartNICs can be used to preprocess
incoming packets and gather characteristics on traffic
and processing requirements, as well as offer the possibility
to offload and accelerate specific functionalities. In the
context of Data Distribution in Vehicular Networks for
Automated Driving, an existing protocol and software
solution [1] offers the potential for SmartNIC-acceleration.
This state-of-the-art solution relies on selective data
distribution in a ROS2-environment to reduce the amount of
data transferred and thereby improve latency and efficiency.
While the offered software implementation already shows significant improvements, offloading certain protocol and packet processing to the SmartNIC promises much greater gains by avoiding expensive software loops and enabling hardware-accelerated processing. 

The goal of this work is to implement the network protocol developed in [1] in FPGA-hardware, preferably using the P4 framework [2]. An existing implementation of the AMD Vitis Net P4 IP core can be used as a starting point. Further, the image processing can be offloaded to the SmartNIC and accelerated using parallel hardware and the onboard HBM on the SmartNIC's FPGA. This requires a custom RTL implementation of image format transformation and caching logic. The existing software implementation shall be used as a design reference and comparison in terms of performance evaluation.

[1] N. Sperling and R. Ernst, "Reducing Communication Cost and Latency in Autonomous Vehicles with Subscriber-centric Selective Data Distribution," 2024 IEEE 99th Vehicular Technology Conference (VTC2024-Spring), Singapore, Singapore, 2024, pp. 1-7

Voraussetzungen

With the advent of research on the next generation of mobile communications 6G, LIS is engaged in exploring architectures and architecture extensions for networking hardware, as well as improving the interaction between SmartNIC hardware, operating system, and application software. As 6G aims to support mission-critical applications, the demand for deterministic, real-time processing within network infrastructure has become paramount. The recent mainline integration of the real-time scheduler in Linux presents a unique opportunity to explore how operating system scheduling decisions directly impact networking performance in time-sensitive environments.

The incoming traffic load and with it the computing requirements on network processing nodes such as edge servers can span multiple magnitudes in a matter of milliseconds and less. This makes the task of load balancing and efficient scheduler decisions increasingly difficult, especially considering additional requirements like priority-awareness.

This thesis investigates the critical intersection of Linux scheduling policies and real-time networking performance. The research goals of this thesis include:

• Evaluating the performance implications of different Linux scheduling policies on networking performance
• Analyzing how scheduling decisions affect deterministic behavior in time-sensitive networking applications
• Assessing efficient load balancing mechanisms and the availability of priority-awareness for specific flows
• Identifying and potentially developing SmartNIC extensions to enhance Linux scheduling decisions

Voraussetzungen

With the advent of research on the next generation of mobile communications 6G, LIS is engaged in exploring architectures and architecture extensions for networking hardware, as well as improving the interaction between SmartNIC hardware, operating system, and application software. As 6G aims to support mission-critical applications, the demand for deterministic, real-time processing within network infrastructure has become paramount. The recent mainline integration of the real-time scheduler in Linux presents a unique opportunity to explore how operating system scheduling decisions directly impact networking performance in time-sensitive environments.

The incoming traffic load and with it the computing requirements on network processing nodes such as edge servers can span multiple magnitudes in a matter of milliseconds and less. This makes the task of load balancing and efficient scheduler decisions increasingly difficult, especially considering additional requirements like priority-awareness.

This thesis investigates the critical intersection of Linux scheduling policies and real-time networking performance. The research goals of this thesis include:

• Evaluating the performance implications of different Linux scheduling policies on networking performance
• Analyzing how scheduling decisions affect deterministic behavior in time-sensitive networking applications
• Assessing efficient load balancing mechanisms and the availability of priority-awareness for specific flows
• Identifying and potentially developing SmartNIC extensions to enhance Linux scheduling decisions

Voraussetzungen

With the advent of research on the next generation of
mobile communications 6G, we are engaged in exploring
architecture extensions for Smart Network Interface Cards
(SmartNICs). To enable adaptive, energy-efficient and
low-latency network interfaces, we are prototyping a
custom packet processing pipeline on FPGA-based NICs,
partially based on the open-nic project
(https://github.com/Xilinx/open-nic).

Modern server architectures face constant challenges in
performance and energy efficiency. SmartNICs offer a
promising solution by offloading packet preprocessing and collecting real-time traffic analytics. These capabilities allow servers to dynamically adapt to changing network conditions and processing demands. However, operating at speeds of 100 Gbps generates massive data volumes that require sophisticated monitoring and debugging capabilities.

This thesis focuses on designing and implementing advanced hardware extensions for debugging and tracing SmartNIC packet processing pipelines using Hardware Description Language (HDL). The developed system will provide critical visibility into high-speed packet processing operations and monitoring logic.

• Developing trace collection mechanisms compatible with 100 Gbps line rates
• Engineering efficient solutions for capturing, moving, and storing large volumes of trace data
• Implementing strategies to avoid performance degradation during trace collection
• Applying suitable postprocessing and generating visualizations of key information

Voraussetzungen

With the advent of research on the next generation of mobile communications 6G, LIS is engaged in exploring architectures and architecture extensions for networking hardware, as well as improving the interaction between SmartNIC hardware, operating system, and application software. As 6G aims to support mission-critical applications, the demand for deterministic, real-time processing within network infrastructure has become paramount. The recent mainline integration of the real-time scheduler in Linux presents a unique opportunity to explore how operating system scheduling decisions directly impact networking performance in time-sensitive environments.

The incoming traffic load and with it the computing requirements on network processing nodes such as edge servers can span multiple magnitudes in a matter of milliseconds and less. This makes the task of load balancing and efficient scheduler decisions increasingly difficult, especially considering additional requirements like priority-awareness.

This thesis investigates the critical intersection of Linux scheduling policies and real-time networking performance. The research goals of this thesis include:

• Evaluating the performance implications of different Linux scheduling policies on networking performance
• Analyzing how scheduling decisions affect deterministic behavior in time-sensitive networking applications
• Assessing efficient load balancing mechanisms and the availability of priority-awareness for specific flows
• Identifying and potentially developing SmartNIC extensions to enhance Linux scheduling decisions

Voraussetzungen