Measuring And Modeling Of Open vSwitch Performance : Implementation in Docker

Abstract: Network virtualization has become an important aspect of the Telecom industry. The need forefficient, scalable and reliable virtualized network functions is paramount to modern networking.Open vSwitch is such virtual switch that attempts to extend the usage of virtual switches to industrygrade performance levels on heterogeneous platforms.The aim of the thesis is to give an insight into the working of Open vSwitch. To evaluate theperformance of Open vSwitch in various virtualization scenarios such as KVM (second companionthesis)[1] and Docker. To investigate different scheduling techniques offered by the Open vSwitchsoftware and supported by the Linux kernel such as FIFO, SFQ, CODEL, FQCODEL, HTB andHFSC. To differentiate the performance of Open vSwitch in these scenarios and scheduling capacitiesand determine the best scenario for optimum performance.The methodology of the thesis involved a physical model of the system used for real-timeexperimentation as well as quantitative analysis. Quantitative analysis of obtained results paved theway for unbiased conclusions. Experimental analysis was required to measure metrics such asthroughput, latency and jitter in order to grade the performance of Open vSwitch in the particularvirtualization scenario.The results of the thesis must be considered in context with a second companion thesis[1]. Both thethesis aim at measuring the performance of Open v-Switch but the virtualization scenarios (Dockerand KVM) which are chosen are different, However, this thesis outline the performance of Open vSwitch and linux bridge in docker scenario. Various scheduling techniques were measured fornetwork performance metrics across both Docker and KVM (second companion thesis) and it wasobserved that Docker performed better in terms of throughput, latency and jitter. In Docker scenarioamongst the scheduling algorithms measured, it has almost same throughput in all schedulingalgorithms and latency shows slight variation and FIFO has least latency, as it is a simplest algorithmand consists of default qdisk. Finally jitter also shows variation on all scheduling algorithms.The conclusion of the thesis is that the virtualization layer on which Open vSwitch operates is one ofthe main factors in determining the switching performance. The KVM scenario and Docker scenarioeach have different virtualization techniques that incur different overheads that in turn lead to differentmeasurements. This difference occurs in different packet scheduling techniques. Docker performsbetter than KVM for both bridges. In the Docker scenario Linux bridge performs better than that ofOpen vSwitch, throughput is almost constant and FIFO has a least latency amongst all schedulingalgorithms and jitter shows more variation in all scheduling algorithms.