Brain-on-Switch: Advanced Intelligent Network Data Plane via NN-Driven Traffic Analysis

Explore a groundbreaking conference talk from NSDI '24 that introduces Brain-on-Switch (BoS), a novel approach to Intelligent Network Data Plane (INDP) using Neural Network-driven traffic analysis at line-speed. Learn how researchers from Tsinghua University and Zhongguancun Laboratory address the limitations of tree-based INDP approaches by enabling Neural Network (NN) inference on programmable switches. Discover the innovative data plane friendly RNN architecture that allows for unlimited RNN time steps with limited data plane stages, achieving line-speed RNN inference. Understand how BoS complements on-switch RNN models with off-switch transformer-based traffic analysis to enhance overall performance. Gain insights into the implementation of BoS using P4 programmable switches and its extensive evaluation across multiple traffic analysis tasks, demonstrating superior analysis accuracy and scalability compared to state-of-the-art methods.