Method and system for large-scale traffic generation based on programmable network technology

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2024388521-A1
Application number	US-202418664368-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	May 15, 2024
Priority date	May 15, 2023
Publication date	Nov 21, 2024
Grant date	—

Abstract

A method and a system for large-scale traffic generation based on programmable network technology, which are used for the research on network operation and maintenance and defense of attacks such as DDOS. According to the method, the required large-scale traffic is generated as required through the coordination of servers and programmable switches. The method specifically comprises the steps of designing a series of primitives which are based on intentions and are irrelevant to underlying architecture details, and reducing the description difficulty of generating large-scale traffic intentions; completing required configurations on the switch and the server by the designed cooperation mechanism of the server and programmable switch according to intentions expressed by different types of primitives, and achieving large-scale traffic generation by coordinating and utilizing server and switch resources.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A large-scale traffic generation method based on programmable network technology, comprising:
step (1) generating task intention primitives, wherein the task intention primitives comprise traffic generation primitives and traffic control primitives for clearly expressing an intent of a large-scale traffic generation task; step (2) classifying the task intention primitives, comprising: classifying the large-scale traffic generation task expressed by the task intention primitives into a hardware compatible primitive set and a hardware incompatible primitive set according to whether the task intention primitives are compatible with a resource limitation of a switch; step (3) generating an initial traffic, comprising: configuring a server group based on the task intention primitives in the hardware incompatible primitive set to generate data packets that meet task requirements, and creating an initial traffic set; step (4) interacting a server with the switch, comprising: when creating the initial traffic, sending the data packets in the initial traffic set and a traffic control configuration in the hardware compatible primitive set to the switch through a link connecting the server group and the switch for controlling a subsequent traffic by a pipeline processing program of the switch; and step (5) controlling a traffic, comprising: sending and controlling, by a programmable switch, the initial traffic set sent from the server group by using a pipeline processor according to traffic control requirements of hardware compatible primitives, allowing the generated large-scale traffic to meet a task configuration requirement.

2 . The large-scale traffic generation method based on programmable network technology according to claim 1 , wherein the traffic generation primitives in the step (1) are configured to define an initial format of the data packets of the large-scale traffic, and comprise following primitives:
(2.1) setting the header structure L header of packets: Set_Packet_Structure(L header ): (2.2) selecting a set of header fields L field in different data packets: Select_Field(L field ); (2.3) setting the specific header fields L field of the data packets as specified values L value : Set_Field_Value(L field , L value ); (2.4) setting per-packet length to l: Set_Packet_Length(l); (2.5) setting k data flows with the largest traffic in the initial traffic set, namely top-k flows, with a probability of occurrence between μ min and μ max : Set_Prob(k, L field , μ min , μ max ); and (2.6) replaying a traffic trace F specified by a user as the large-scale traffic: Replay_Trace (F).

3 . The large-scale traffic generation method based on programmable network technology according to claim 1 , wherein the traffic control primitives in the step (1) are configured to express a task intention of controlling the initial traffic set, and comprise following primitives:
(3.1) setting the switch port list L port to emit the large-scale traffic: Set_Port(L port ); (3.2) setting a rate γ for sending the large-scale traffic: Set_Rate(γ); (3.3) setting a total number of times N test for sending the large-scale traffic: Set_Number(N test ); (3.4) setting a duration D in seconds for sending the large-scale traffic each time: Set_Duration (D); and (3.5) setting a time interval I in seconds for sending the large-scale traffic consecutively for two times: Set_Interval(I)

4 . The large-scale traffic generation method based on programmable network technology according to claim 1 , wherein said classifying the task intention primitives comprises: enumerating each primitive in a task T for generating the large-scale traffic, wherein the task T needs to change header structures of the data packets or payloads, and these header structures or payloads are disabled on the switch due to switch resource limitations; for each primitive P∈T, it determines whether P belongs to the class of attack traffic generation primitive, wherein when P belongs to the attack traffic generation primitive, P is incompatible with the switch resources, and is added to the hardware incompatible primitive set Ω server ; otherwise, P is classified into the hardware compatible primitive set.

5 . The large-scale traffic generation method based on programmable network technology according to claim 1 , wherein the initial traffic generation in the step (3) comprises:
step (5.1) generating the data packets, comprising: setting a header structure of the data packets based on the primitive Set_Packet_Structure(L header ), performing field initialization, establishing a dependency of header fields, and determining a total number of required initial data packets; step (5.2) setting a set of header fields, comprising: setting the header fields of the data packets in two ways: random values or the fixed values based on primitives Select_Field(L field ) and Set_Field_Value(L field , L value ); step (5.3) updating per-packet length, comprising: intercepting or expanding a payload part of the data packets until meeting the packet length/specified by Set_Packet_Length(l); step (5.4) setting probabilities of the data packets, comprising: setting the probabilities that top k flows appear in the initial traffic to be between μ min and μ max based on Set_Prob(k, L field , μ min , μ max ); and step (5.5) replaying user-specified data flows, comprising: providing a function of user-defined initial data flows, and replaying user-specified data packets based on Replay_Trace (F) to form a final attack traffic set P T .

6 . The large-scale traffic generation method based on programmable network technology according to claim 1 , wherein the traffic control configuration extracted in the step (4) comprises an expected sending rate γ, a switch port list L port for sending the data packets, the total number of times N for sending the large-scale traffic, a duration D for sending the large-scale traffic each time, and a time interval I for sending the large-scale traffic consecutively for two times.

7 . The large-scale traffic generation method based on programmable network technology according to claim 1 , wherein the pipeline processor in the step (5) receives the initial traffic set P T and the traffic control requirements in a user-specified hardware compatible primitive set Ω pipe , and uses basic data packet processing elements in a pipeline to control and send the large-scale traffic, comprising:
step (7.1) controlling a data message rate, comprising: controlling the large-scale traffic to be sent out at multiple specified ports Set_Port(L port ) by applying a recycling and color marking mechanism or a multi-pipeline cooperation mechanism, and controlling a traffic rate to meet the requirement of an expected sending rate Set_Rate(γ);
step (7.2) controlling a data packet termination, comprising: counting the data packets and monitoring the duration, and terminating sending the data packets when exceeding the user-specified test number Set_Number(N test );
step (7.3) controlling the duration of the data packets, comprising: recording a timestamp told indicating when rate control of the data packets starts, after that, continuously monitoring a difference between the current time t now and t old , and terminating the rate control of the data packets and stops sending packets when the difference exceeding Set_Duration(D); and
step (7.4) controlling an interval, comprising: recording the timestamp when suspending sending the traffic, monitoring whether a downtime reaches the time interval Set_Interval(I) of two consecutive tests specified by the user, and when the difference exceeding Set_Interval(I), restarting the execution of rate control.

8 . A large-scale traffic

Assignees

• Univ Zhejiang
• Zhejiang Lab

Inventors

• Zhou Haifeng
• Wang Di
• Chen Xiang
• Wu Chunming
• Wang Wenhai

Classifications

• H04L43/55 Primary

  Testing of service level quality, e.g. simulating service usage · CPC title

• H04L69/326

  in the transport layer [OSI layer 4] (H04L69/16 takes precedence) · CPC title

• H04L63/1458 Primary

  Denial of Service · CPC title

• Y02D30/50

  in wire-line communication networks, e.g. low power modes or reduced link rate · CPC title

• H04L47/19

  at layers above the network layer (network arrangements for networked applications for scheduling or organising the servicing of application requests H04L67/60) · CPC title