Diagnose network failures via data-plane analysis

Mai, Haohui

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/18419 Copy

Description

Title

Diagnose network failures via data-plane analysis

Author(s)

Mai, Haohui

Issue Date

2011-01-14T22:50:14Z

Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)

King, Samuel T.

Doctoral Committee Chair(s)

King, Samuel T.

Department of Study

Computer Science

Discipline

Computer Science

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

M.S.

Degree Level

Thesis

Keyword(s)

• Data-Plane Analysis
• Network Failure
• Satisfiability

Abstract

Diagnosing problems in networks is a time-consuming and error-prone process. Previous tools to assist operators primarily focus on analyzing control plane configuration. Configuration analysis is limited in that it cannot find bugs in router software, and is harder to generalize across protocols since it must model complex configuration languages and dynamic protocol behavior. This paper studies an alternate approach: diagnosing problems through static analysis of the data plane. This approach can catch bugs that are invisible at the level of configuration files, and simplifies unified analysis of a network across many protocols and implementations. We present Anteater, a tool for checking invariants in the data plane. Anteater translates high-level network invariants into boolean satisfiability problems, checks them against network state using a SAT solver, and reports counterexamples if violations have been found. Applied to a large campus network, Anteater revealed 23 bugs, including forwarding loops and stale ACL rules, with only five false positives. Nine of these faults are being fixed by campus network operators.

Graduation Semester

2010-12

Permalink

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/18419

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2010 Haohui Mai

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