NetCL: A Unified Programming Framework for In-Network Computing

George Karlos*, Henri Bal, Lin Wang

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book / Report / Conference proceedingConference contributionAcademicpeer-review

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Abstract

The emergence of programmable data planes (PDPs) has paved the way for in-network computing (INC), a paradigm wherein networking devices actively participate in distributed computations. However, PDPs are still a niche technology, mostly available to network operators, and rely on packet-processing DSLs like P4. This necessitates great networking expertise from INC programmers to articulate computational tasks in networking terms and reason about their code. To lift this barrier to INC we propose a unified compute interface for the data plane. We introduce C / C++ extensions that allow INC to be expressed as kernel functions processing in-flight messages, and APIs for establishing INC-aware communication. We develop a compiler that translates kernels into P4, and thin runtimes that handle the required network plumbing, shielding INC programmers from low-level networking details. We evaluate our system using common INC applications from the literature.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationSC24: International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage and Analysis
Subtitle of host publication[Proceedings]
PublisherIEEE Computer Society
Pages1-20
Number of pages20
ISBN (Electronic)9798350352917
ISBN (Print)9798350352924
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2024
Event2024 International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage and Analysis, SC 2024 - Atlanta, United States
Duration: 17 Nov 202422 Nov 2024

Publication series

NameInternational Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage and Analysis, SC
ISSN (Print)2167-4329
ISSN (Electronic)2167-4337

Conference

Conference2024 International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage and Analysis, SC 2024
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityAtlanta
Period17/11/2422/11/24

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 IEEE.

Funding

This research was supported by the Dutch Research Council (NWO) grant OCENW.KLEIN.209 and, in part, by Google Research and Intel's contribution of Tofino hardware through the ICRP Fast Forward Initiative (FFI'22).

FundersFunder number
Intel Corporation
Google Research
Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk OnderzoekOCENW.KLEIN.209

    Keywords

    • Compilers
    • Distributed computing
    • In-network computing
    • Programmable data plane
    • Programming languages

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