Considering Processing Cost in Network Simulations

Title: Considering Processing Cost in Network Simulations

Authors: Ramaswamy Ramaswamy, Ning Weng, and Tilman Wolf

Abstract: In many network simulations and models the cost of processing a packet is considered negligible or overly simplified. The functionality of routers is steadily increasing and complex processing of packet payloads is being implemented (deep packet classification, encryption, content transcoding). We show two examples where processing cost can contribute to a significant portion of the overall packet delay. To enable a more precise consideration of processing delay, we present a tool called NPEST (Network Processing Estimator). NPEST is a framework on top of which packet processing functionality can be implemented and simulated using an actual processor simulator. NPEST can be programmed in C and greatly simplifies the implementation and simulation process as compared to using network processor simulators. The results derived from NPEST can either be used directly or be aggregated to processing statistics for network simulations. We present such results for two prototype applications: IP forwarding and IP security. We also show a comparison between the results obtained from NPEST and an Intel IXP1200 network processor.

Published: Ramaswamy Ramaswamy, Ning Weng, and Tilman Wolf, "Considering processing cost in network simulations," in Proc. of Workshop on Models, Methods and Tools for Reproducible Network Research (MoMeTools) in conjunction with ACM SIGCOMM, Karlsruhe, Germany, Aug. 2003, pp. 47-56.

Download: PDF

BibTeX:
@inproceedings{Ramaswamy:CPC03,
   author    = {Ramaswamy, Ramaswamy and Weng, Ning and Wolf, Tilman},
   title     = {Considering Processing Cost in Network Simulations},
   booktitle = {Proc. of Workshop on Models, Methods and Tools for Reproducible Network Research (MoMeTools) in conjunction with ACM SIGCOMM},
   year      = 2003,
   month     = aug,
   address   = {Karlsruhe, Germany},
   pages     = {47--56}
}

Copyright: ACM COPYRIGHT NOTICE. Copyright © 2003 by the Association for Computing Machinery, Inc. Permission to make digital or hard copies of part or all of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, to republish, to post on servers, or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from Publications Dept., ACM, Inc., fax +1 (212) 869-0481, or permissions@acm.org.