1

The XIA Future Internet Architecture and its Testbed-based Evaluation

Peter Steenkiste, Dave Andersen, David Eckhardt, Sara Kiesler, Jon Peha, Adrian Perrig, Srini Seshan, Marvin Sirbu, Hui Zhang

Carnegie Mellon University

John Byers, Boston UniversityBruce Maggs, Duke

Aditya Akella, University of Wisconsin

• What is XIA?

• Software prototype

• Usage scenarios, testbed/experiment plan

2

Problems with the IP Narrow Waist

• Security – no support built into the network (IP)– DOS attacks, address spoofing, routing attacks, …

• New usage models add complexity, overhead– Content, service networking require

a level of indirection

• Adding functionality in the network is difficult– IPv6, multicast, caching,

“transparent” middleboxes, ..

Evolvability

Applications

Link Technologies

XIA Ideas: Multiple Principal Types• Associated with different forwarding semantics

– Support heterogeneity in usage and deployment models

• Hosts XIDs support host-based communication – who?• Service XIDs allow the network to route to possibly

replicated services – what does it do?– LAN services access, WAN replication, …

• Content XIDs allow network to retrieve content from “anywhere” – what is it?– Opportunistic caches, CDNs, …

• Set of principal types can evolve over time

4

XIA Ideas: Fallbacks and DAGs• Introduction of a new principal type will be

incremental – no “flag day”!

NID:HID

5

• XIA: intent and fallback address– Intent allows the network to

optimize based on user intent– Fallback: guaranteed to be reachable,

used if the intent “fails”– Encoded using DAGs

CID

….

NID:HID

….

Payload

Dest

Src

CIDS

Source network Internet Destination network

HIDS

Cache

CacheCache

NIDS

XIA Ideas: Intrinsic Security• XIA uses self-certifying identifiers that guarantee

security properties for communication operation– Host ID is a hash of its public key – accountability (AIP)– Content ID is a hash of the content – correctness– Does not rely on external configurations

• Intrinsic security is specific to the principal type: – Content XID: content is correct– Service XID: the right service provided content– Host XID: content was delivered from right host

6

Open Source XIA Releasehttps://github.com/xia-project/

• XIA Prototype released in May 2012– Includes full XIA protocol stack, SID/CID support, utilities

• Being used to support evaluation, applications, services• New functionality is being added regularly

7

Datalink

XIA

XDP XSP XChunkP Cache

Chunking

Xsockets

ApplicationsXHCP

XCMPARP

BIND

Routing

Prototype Features

• Full host and router protocol stack• SDN-based control plane supporting routing for SIDs,

HIDs, CIDs• Inter domain routing for NIDs • Anycast for SIDs• Support for intrinsic security• Mobility for new/active sessions

8

Compatibility Library• XIA changes socket API

– Changing apps painful

• Idea: apps continue to use IP addresses but they are used as IDs for an XIA address– (IP, socket) -> XIA DAG– Think: per host NAT

• Mapping service keeps mappings consistent

• Works really well– E.g., ported Firefox

XIAProtocol

Stack

XIAXsockets

GLIBC

Kernel

Wrapper

Application“IP as ID”sockets

Experimental Evaluation of FIAs

• Experiment requirements are very diverse!– Focus on core versus edge, control vs data vs both– Differences in requirements for scale, realism of topology,

richness of domains, realism cross-traffic, ..– Geographic diversity is often important

• Shared devices/links are often fine

10

Classes of Experiments

• Edge centric experiments– Mobility, vehicular use case, caching, anycast, …– Need many edge networks; core can be simplified

• Core centric experiments– Evolvable routing, new routing protocols (e.g., Scion, BGP

extensions), Internet scale trust management, …– Realistic core topology: customer-provider/peer links,

many core domains; edge can be simple

• Some experiment stress core + edge: video distr.– Diverse edge networks: clients, CDNs, brokers, …– Core network routing and bottlenecks play big role as well

11

Large Scale Video DistributionA Video Control Plane

• Use XIA control and data plane to optimize and simplify video distribution with high QoE– Numbers of individual entities, and control desired, vary

• Will use XIA control plane and data plane features

Player ISPs CDNs ContentBroker

Monitoring

Analysis and OptimizationQoE …. System

Control

Extreme Mobility: Vehicular XIA Networking

• Support for high-speed mobility

• Use of SIDs and CIDs to improve efficiency

• Fast authentication and handoff

13

Testbed Deployment Plan

• Permanent XIA deployment consisting of:– Edge networks at XIA sites and simple GENI backbone– Pieces are being put in place– Must expand on-demand for specific experiments

• More edge and transit domains based on need

• Gain experience in running XIA networks, experiment with (limited versions) of two use-cases– Explore richer inter-domain experiment support in the future 14

Duke

CMU

BU

Wisc

Other

Transit

Transit

Transit

Transit

Transit

Transit

Transit

Transit

Transit

Edge

Edge

Edge