In‐network computing—challenges and opportunities

Abstract

AbstractThe rapid growth of new applications with high resource demands leads to the need for more computing power. Datacenter servers may not be the most efficient way to run the necessary software. The introduction of programmable dataplanes opens up the possibility to run software directly in the dataplane with lower latency and higher energy efficiency than general purpose servers. Thus, the concept of in‐network computing is introduced. This paper addresses the challenges associated with executing software resorting to programmable networking devices while presenting a high level conceptual architecture including three layers of computing. The paper ends by taking the evaluated challenges into consideration and proposing future research directions for the evolution of the in‐network computing technology.