Physical Deployability Matters
Abstract
While many network research papers address issues of deployability, with
a few exceptions, this has been limited to protocol compatibility or
switch-resource constraints, such as flow table sizes.
We argue that good network designs must also consider the costs and
complexities of deploying the design within the constraints of the physical
environment in a datacenter: \emph{physical} deployability.
The traditional metrics of network ``goodness'' mostly do not account
for these costs and constraints, and this may partially explain why some
otherwise attractive designs have not been deployed in real-world datacenters.
a few exceptions, this has been limited to protocol compatibility or
switch-resource constraints, such as flow table sizes.
We argue that good network designs must also consider the costs and
complexities of deploying the design within the constraints of the physical
environment in a datacenter: \emph{physical} deployability.
The traditional metrics of network ``goodness'' mostly do not account
for these costs and constraints, and this may partially explain why some
otherwise attractive designs have not been deployed in real-world datacenters.
Research Areas
