Programmable Calendar Queues for High-Speed Packet Scheduling

Explore a 22-minute conference talk from USENIX NSDI '20 on programmable calendar queues for high-speed packet scheduling. Delve into the limitations of traditional packet schedulers and discover how the calendar queue abstraction can support dynamic priority escalation. Learn about the implementation of programmable calendar queues using dataplane primitives or control-plane commands, and their ability to emulate diverse scheduling policies. Examine case studies demonstrating the application of this abstraction to improve delay guarantees, fairness, and short flow prioritization. Gain insights from evaluations using custom simulations and a small-scale testbed, and understand the potential impact on network performance and flexibility.

Intro
Packet Scheduling
Static Priority Limitations
Calendar Queues (CQs)
Outline
Reconfigurable Switches
Programmable Calendar Queues (PCOs)
Realizing Algorithms using PCOS
Example using PCQs: Fair Queueing
Example using PCQs: Earliest Deadline First
Implementing PCas in hardware
Hardware Feasibility
Case Study: Coflow Scheduling
Coflow Testbed Setup
Coflow Scheduling Evaluation
Case Study: Burst-friendly Fair Queueing
Summary