Fair Resource Allocation in Programmable and Active Networks Using a Composite Scheduler

In active and programmable networks, the packet scheduling schemes should consider multiple resources such as CPU and memory in addition to bandwidth to achieve overall fairness. Maintaining fairness of one resource allocation does not ensure the fair allocation of other resources automatically. The dynamic nature of network load, and the inherent unpredictability of processing times of active packets pose another significant challenge in providing fairness guarantees between contending flows. This paper presents a mechanism for resource allocation within a programmable/active node, with provision for determining the CPU requirement of each flow. It also has a database to keep this information for future reference. We also present a new composite packet scheduling algorithm called CBCS for scheduling bandwidth and CPU in programmable and active networks. It uses the evaluated information about resource requirements of packets to allocate bandwidth and CPU to all the competing flows. Through simulation we show the improved performance of our scheduling algorithm in achieving fairness compared to DRR (Deficit Round Robin).