Snabb Switch is a new open source toolkit for using Linux/x86 servers to solve high-end networking problems. Snabb Switch is used by network operators who need to process up to 100 Gbps of network traffic per server and its application areas include load generation, line-rate packet capture, firewalling, VPN, and Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) for OpenStack. I will explain the architecture of Snabb Switch, how it is able to process over 100 Gbps of traffic on an ordinary x86 server, and how LuaJIT makes it possible for a grassroots community to build Snabb Switch with only around 10,000 lines of code. I will also describe how network operators are using Snabb Switch as an alternative to hardware solutions from traditional network equipment vendors.

1. Snabb Switch:
Simple and fast
packet networking
Luke Gorrie

2. Hello
• Started Snabb Switch project.
• Many years in networking vendors/startups.
• Tech lover: Lua, Erlang, Lisp, Forth, ...
• Now 100% open source.

3. Overview
• What’s this all about?
• What is the software architecture?
• How do some real applications work?

4. Network infrastructure
• Switch, router, firewall, traffic shaper, NAT,
VPN, DDoS-protector, ...
• Over $100 billion each year.
• How about open source on x86 servers?

5. Server

6. Software?

7. Snabb Switch
• packetblaster: infinite load generator.
• VPLS:Virtual Private LAN Service.
• NFV: FastVirtio-net for KVM/OpenStack.
• lwAFTR: Lightweight IPv4/IPv6 translation.
• LISPER: Locator/ID Separation Protocol.
• Snabbwall: Stateful firewall appliance.

8. Community
• Network operators.
• Professional open source developers.
• Creative people on the internet.

9. How does it work?

10. Style
• High-level: written in Lua (LuaJIT).
• Low-level: built-in device drivers.
• Avoids slow and complicated things:
threads, locks, interrupts, kernel modules.

11. Less is more
• 10,000 lines of code.
• 1 second compile (1 minute with deps).
• 1 megabyte stand-alone executable.

12. Architecture

13. Packet
struct packet {
char data[10240];
int length;
};

14. Link
struct link {
struct packet *packets[256];
int read, write;
};

15. App
MyApp = {}
function MyApp:pull () ... end
function MyApp:push () ... end

16. App Catalogue
Basic I/O Processing
join intel10g flooding_bridge
repeater loadgen learning_bridge
sink pcap_reader keyed_ipv6_tunnel
source pcap_writer ipv6_nd
split raw_socket ipv6_ns
tee solarflare pcap_filter
vhost_user rate_limiter

17. packetblaster

18. snabbnfv

19. Join in
@lukego
snabb-devel@googlegroups.com