Understanding the Impact of Host Networking Elements on Traffic Bursts

Explore a 15-minute conference talk from NSDI '23 that delves into the complex world of host networking and its impact on traffic bursts. Learn about Valinor, an innovative traffic measurement framework developed to provide unprecedented visibility into traffic burstiness across various timescales. Discover how conventional host networking features, including buffers, schedulers, and pacers, interact to create large bursts at different time intervals. Gain insights into the challenges of understanding traffic bursts and their importance for optimal resource provisioning, congestion control, buffer sizing, and traffic prediction. Examine the analysis of various congestion control algorithms, qdiscs, Linux process scheduling, NIC packet scheduling, and hardware offloading. Challenge common assumptions about the primary sources of burstiness and explore the significant role of lower layers in both creating and suppressing bursts. Investigate the limitations of traditional burst countermeasures and understand how burstiness varies across different host stacks. Recognize the importance of regular burst analysis using advanced measurement frameworks like Valinor in the ever-evolving landscape of host networking.