The Phoenix Framework: A Practical Architecture for Programmable Networks

Programmable networks [1, 2] allow third parties to dynamically reprogram switches and routers in order to extend their functionality. This approach facilitates new capabilities such as dynamic reallocation of resources, automated healing from malfunctions and failures, customized information processing in network devices, and easier service creation. These capabilities enable rapid customization of the network by providing mechanisms to adapt to changing environments for new applications such as multimedia (video conferencing, video on demand, multimedia transcoders), multicast, intrusion detection, and Intranet firewalls. In this paper, we describe Intel's framework for programmable networks known as Phoenix. The objective of the Phoenix framework is to make it easier to deploy new network services and allow comprehensive control over the use and management of network resources and services. To enable such functionality, the Phoenix framework provides support for a mobile agent system and open interfaces. Mobile agent systems make the network very flexible as an agent can extend the network device capability on demand at run time. We also discuss how the open interfaces provided by the Phoenix framework can be utilized to deploy new network services.