Title :
A kernel-driven framework for high performance internet routing simulation
Author :
Herbert, Alan ; Irwin, Barry
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Comput. Sci., Rhodes Univ., Grahamstown, South Africa
Abstract :
The ability to provide the simulation of packets traversing an internet path is an integral part of providing realistic simulations for network training, and cyber defence exercises. This paper builds on previous work, and considers an in-kernel approach to solving the routing simulation problem. The inkernel approach is anticipated to allow the framework to be able to achieve throughput rates of 1GB/s or higher using commodity hardware. Processes that run outside the context of the kernel of most operating system require context switching to access hardware and kernel modules. This leads to considerable delays in the processes, such as network simulators, that frequently access hardware such as hard disk accesses and network packet handling. To mitigate this problem, as experienced with earlier implementations, this research looks towards implementing a kernel module to handle network routing and simulation within a UNIX based system. This would remove delays incurred from context switching and allows for direct access to the hardware components of the host.
Keywords :
Internet; Linux; computer network performance evaluation; operating system kernels; queueing theory; telecommunication network routing; CPU requirements; Linux kernel; Radix trees; UNIX based system; commodity hardware; cyber defence exercises; hardware components; high performance Internet routing simulation; in-kernel approach; kernel modules; kernel-driven framework; network routing; network simulation; network simulators; network training; Delays; Hardware; Kernel; Memory management; Routing; Throughput; Packet routing; networks; simulation;
Conference_Titel :
Information Security for South Africa, 2013
Conference_Location :
Johannesburg
DOI :
10.1109/ISSA.2013.6641048