Implementing ICN over P4 in HTTP Scenario
Weiwei Feng, Xiaobin Tan, Jin Yang · 2019
In today's network traffic, t he most used i s the HTTP protocol, and the use of HTTP is still growing rapidly. However, the normal transmission of HTTP still needs to be based on the underlying TCP/IP protocol stack, which limits its ability to solve problems in the current Internet. In this paper, we propose a solution to realize the cooperative work of HTTP protocol and ICN(Information Centric Network) protocol by using P4(Programming Protocol-Independent Packet Processors) language. Firstly, we propose a packet conversion mechanism for converting HTTP packet into ICN.p4 packet which has ICN packet characteristics and converting it back. Secondly, we adopt P4 language to implement the ICN transmission in the forwarding router. Load the P4 program onto a switch that supports the P4 language. The flow table iss ent through t he control p lane of SDN, so that the switch can works well according to the P4 program, and the ICN forwarding process can be completed for the incoming packet on the P4 switch. In order to verify the functionality of our design, we set up a network topology among multiple virtual machines and verify the network performance improvements when using the ICN protocol in HTTP transport. Evaluation results shows our solution enables P4 switches to cache HTTP content responses, aggregate the same requests, and improve network performance.