ClassBench: A Packet Classification Benchmark


 


Packet classification is an enabling technology for next generation network services and often the primary bottleneck in high-performance routers.  Due to the importance and complexity of the packet classification problem, a myriad of algorithms and resulting implementations exist. The performance and capacity of many algorithms and classification devices, including TCAMs, depend upon properties of the filter set and query patterns. Despite the pressing need, no standard performance evaluation tools or techniques are available.  Internet service providers are reluctant to distribute copies of real filter sets for security and confidentiality reasons, hence realistic test vectors are a scarce commodity. The small subset of the research community who obtain real filter sets either limit performance evaluation to the small sample space or employ ad hoc methods of modifying those filter sets. In response to this problem, we present ClassBench, a suite of tools for benchmarking packet classification algorithms and devices. ClassBench includes a Filter Set Generator that produces synthetic filter sets that accurately model the characteristics of real filter sets. Along with varying the size of the filter sets, we provide high-level control over the composition of the filters in the resulting filter set. The tools suite also includes a Trace Generator that produces a sequence of packet headers to exercise the synthetic filter set. Along with specifying the relative size of the trace, we provide a simple mechanism for controlling locality of reference in the trace. While we have already found ClassBench to be very useful in our own research, we seek to initiate a broader discussion and solicit input from the community to guide the refinement of the tools and codification of a formal benchmarking methodology.

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News

15 July 2004 – Fixed bug in Filter Set Generator causing violation of destination address prefix nesting threshold and non-zero length 0.0.0.0 destination address prefixes.