Memory-Efficient and Ultra-Fast Network Lookup and Forwarding Using Othello Hashing

Abstract

Network algorithms always prefer low memory cost and fast packet processing speed. Forwarding information base (FIB), as a typical network processing component, requires a scalable and memory-efficient algorithm to support fast lookups. In this paper, we present a new network algorithm, Othello hashing, and its application of a FIB design called concise, which uses very little memory to support ultra-fast lookups of network names. Othello hashing and concise make use of minimal perfect hashing and relies on the programmable network framework to support dynamic updates. Our conceptual contribution of concise is to optimize the memory efficiency and query speed in the data plane and move the relatively complex construction and update components to the resource-rich control plane. We implemented concise on three platforms. Experimental results show that concise uses significantly smaller memory to achieve much faster query speed compared to existing solutions of network name lookups.