External Service Plane Offloading for Router Scalability
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Solution Overview
Problem
Routers face limitations in providing a large quantity of services due to the constraints of service planes being hosted on the router itself, which restricts their ability to handle varying bandwidth and service capacity requirements effectively.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of an external service plane hosted by a device other than the router, allowing the router to offload service plane functions and maintain control, forwarding, and service operations as if the services were still hosted locally.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If service planes are hosted on the router itself, then the router can provide services, but the quantity and flexibility of services are limited due to router constraints
Solution Approach 1:
The service plane function is extracted from the router and hosted on an external device. The router maintains control and forwarding operations while the external device handles service plane operations, thereby removing the constraints of router hardware and software limitations on service quantity and flexibility.
Solution Approach 2:
The service plane is moved from the traditional intra-router dimension to an external dimension, allowing services to be hosted on separate devices. This dimensional shift enables scaling service capacity independently from router capacity, providing greater adaptability without increasing router complexity.
2Productivity
If service planes are offloaded to external devices, then service scalability is improved, but the system architecture becomes more complex
Solution Approach 1:
The network system is segmented into distinct functional components: the router handles control and forwarding operations, while external devices handle service plane operations. This segmentation allows each component to be optimized independently, improving service scalability without proportionally increasing overall system complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The router acts as an intermediary between the external service plane host and the network. It maintains the appearance of local service hosting while facilitating external service delivery, thereby simplifying the architecture from the network's perspective while enabling external service plane operations.
3Quantity of substance
If multiple service planes are hosted externally, then service capacity increases, but coordination and management become more difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The router is designed to universally manage multiple external service plane hosts through standardized interfaces and protocols. This multi-functionality allows the router to coordinate numerous service planes without proportionally increasing management complexity, as the same control mechanisms apply regardless of the number or type of external service hosts.
Data Source
AI summary
A network device may receive network traffic from a first device. The network device may identify, based on the network traffic and a service level agreement, stored by the network device, that a service is to be applied to the network traffic. The network device may send the network traffic to a second device, the second device using a service plane to apply the service to the network traffic. The network device may receive the network traffic from the second device, the network traffic having the service applied by the second device; and send the network traffic, having the service applied by the second device, to a third device.