Toward software-defined middlebox networking
Aaron Gember-Jacobson, Prathmesh Prabhu, Zainab Ghadiyali, Aditya Akella · 2012
Current middlebox (MB) management mechanisms are clumsy and unsuitable for taking full advantage of new MB deployment models and diverse MB functionality. Instead, we advocate for mechanisms that help exercise unified control over the key factors influencing MB operations. Our goal is to realize a software-defined MB networking framework to simplify management of complex, diverse functionalities and engender rich deployments. We discuss the major challenges that arise---representing, manipulating, and knowledgeably controlling MB state---and we present initial thoughts on the appropriate abstractions and interfaces to address them.