Disaggregating Stateful Network Functions

Explore a conference talk from USENIX NSDI '23 that delves into a novel approach for implementing complex network functions in public clouds. Learn about a design that disaggregates network function processing from individual hosts into shared resource pools, utilizing appliances that combine ARM cores with high-speed stateful match processing ASICs. Discover how this innovative method can enhance reliability and performance while reducing per-server costs, especially in scenarios with skewed workloads across virtual machines. Gain insights into the challenges faced and solutions developed during implementation, as well as results from a real-world deployment in a large public cloud environment. This 19-minute presentation offers valuable knowledge for professionals and researchers interested in advancing network function virtualization and cloud infrastructure optimization.