Network-driven Multicast Synchronization with TopoSync-SFC
Felix Bachmann, Robert Bauer, Hauke Heseding, Martina Zitterbart · 2020
This demo showcases TopoSync-SFC, a network-driven approach for SFC-aware multicast synchronization. Synchronization of SFC-processed multicast traffic is an important requirement for several distributed applications like TETRA voice communication or interactive games. That is, packets sent to a multicast group are first processed by a Service Function Chain (SFC) and received approximately at the same time by all group members. The key idea is to exploit properties of the forwarding tree and SFC-embedding in the network for the purpose of synchronization. In particular, we artificially increase the length of some paths in the forwarding tree to achieve synchronization. With this approach, no dedicated support of end devices is required. We use an ONOS-based prototype implementation and a softwarized network emulated with containernet to demonstrate the functionality of TopoSync-SFC. A whack-a-mole game executed on emulated hosts showcases the impact of synchronized reception on application fairness.