Extending the software-defined network boundary
Oliver Michel, M. W. Coughlin, Eric R. Keller · ACM SIGCOMM Computer Communication Review · 2014
Given that Software-Defined Networking is highly successful in solving many of today's manageability, flexibility, and scalability issues in large-scale networks, in this paper we argue that the concept of SDN can be extended even further. Many applications (esp. stream processing and big-data applications) rely on graph-based inter-process communication patterns that are very similar to those in computer networks. To our mind, this network abstraction spanning over different types of entities is highly suitable for and would benefit from central (SDN-inspired) control for the same reasons classical networks do. In this work, we investigate the commonalities between such intra-host networks and classical computer networking. Based on this, we study the feasibility of a central network controller that manages both network traffic and intra-host communication over a custom bus system.