Automatic Kernel Offload Using BPF

Farbod Shahinfar, Sebastiano Miano, Giuseppe Siracusano, Roberto Bifulco, Aurojit Panda, Gianni Antichi

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

Abstract

BPF support in Linux has made kernel extensions easier. Recent efforts have shown that using BPF to offload portions of server applications, e.g., memcached and service proxies, can improve application performance and efficiency. However, thus far, the community has not looked at the question of what parts of an application should be offloaded? This paper first shows that blindly offloading application functionality to the kernel is neither beneficial nor desirable, and care must be taken when deciding what to offload. Furthermore, when deciding what to offload, developers must consider not just the application, but also the workload being handled, and the kernel being targetted, Therefore, we advocate automating this decision process in a compiler, that can analyze application code, and produce two executables, a kernel offload and a userspace program, that jointly implement the application's functionality. This paper discusses the challenges that must be addressed to build such a compiler, and why they can be feasibly addressed.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationHotOS 2023 - Proceedings of the 19th Workshop on Hot Topics in Operating Systems
PublisherAssociation for Computing Machinery, Inc
Pages143-149
Number of pages7
ISBN (Electronic)9798400701955
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 22 2023
Event19th Workshop on Hot Topics in Operating Systems, HotOS 2023 - Providence, United States
Duration: Jun 22 2023Jun 24 2023

Publication series

NameHotOS 2023 - Proceedings of the 19th Workshop on Hot Topics in Operating Systems

Conference

Conference19th Workshop on Hot Topics in Operating Systems, HotOS 2023
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityProvidence
Period6/22/236/24/23

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Computer Networks and Communications
  • Hardware and Architecture
  • Information Systems

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