On Integrating eBPF into Pluginized Protocols

[en] eBPF is a popular technology originating from the Linux kernel that enables safely running user-provided programs in a kernel-context. This technology opened the door for efficient programming in the operating system, especially in its network stack. However, its applicability is not limited to the Linux kernel. Various efforts leveraged the eBPF Instruction Set Architecture (ISA) as the basis of other networking related use cases outside of the Linux kernel. This paper focuses on the pluginized protocols' use case such as PQUIC and xBGP where the eBPF ISA serves as the basis to execute plugins providing per-session protocol behavior. It first quickly describes how the Linux kernel builds around this eBPF ISA to provide enhanced in-kernel network programmability. Then, the paper considers the case of pluginized protocols. Leveraging eBPF outside of the Linux kernel environment requires complementing the eBPF ISA to meet the pluginized protocols' requirements. This paper details these integration efforts. Based on the lessons learned from these, it finally concludes by an applicability discussion of the eBPF ISA to other use cases.

Disciplines :

Computer science

Author, co-author :

De Coninck, Quentin ; Université de Mons - UMONS > Faculté Polytechnique > Service de Cybersécurité et Systèmes Informatiques

Navarre, Louis; UCLouvain, Belgium

Rybowski, Nicolas; UCLouvain, Belgium

Language :

English

Title :

On Integrating eBPF into Pluginized Protocols

Publication date :

30 October 2023

Journal title :

ACM SIGCOMM Computer Communication Review

ISSN :

0146-4833

Publisher :

Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)

Volume :

Issue :

Pages :

2-8

Development Goals :

9. Industry, innovation and infrastructure

Additional URL :

https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3649171.3649173

Research unit :

F115 - Service de Cybersécurité et Systèmes Informatiques

Research institute :

Infortech

Available on ORBi UMONS :

since 22 February 2024

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