Datapath.io Network Performance Optimization - Technical Overview

Network Performance Platform

NP² (Network Performance Platform)

Datapath.io provides optimized network access to hosted applications by

providing a programmable internet connection at hosting and cloud service

providers in order to give their users control over IP routing and BGP route

selection..


LatencyCongestionPacket loss

JitterBandwidth

Transit costs

+No tools to

Monitor/Manage

End user Experience Suffers

Network Problems


Problem: BGP

• The Border Gateway Protocol selects the shortest path (AS hops) to each network in the

internet. This algorithm does not check for:

Latency / Round-Trip-Times

Congestion

Packet-loss

Bandwidth

• Networks paths often become degraded because of Network congestion. These routes are

thus rendered un-usable for the end users. However, BGP doesn’t reroute traffic as long as the

network in question is reachable. Rerouting is only allowed in cases of complete loss of

reachability and hard failures.


Problem: ISPs

• Network providers have a vested interest in BGP route selection. Not all

routes through the internet cost the same.

• ISPs often choose to route traffic though network paths that have the most

financial benefit for them and not based on network performance metrics.

• There have been documented cases of large ISPs intentionally creating

congestion in some network nodes to charge service provider’s premium

rates for non-congested paths.


Datapath.io Solution

• Datapath.io collects performance data related to network latency,

congestion, packet loss and bandwidth from all networks of the

internet.

• First, it collects RIB data from routeviews.org and sends performance

measurement test data to all prefixes in the RIB.

• Next, a spark cluster analyzes the performance data and preprocesses

it to be used for reporting within the Datapath.io customer backend and

for the appliance/router.



• For each application, the user can define a set of requirements within a

topological area of the internet: i.e. deliver to customers in central

europe within 50ms, or optimize bandwidth at lowest price.

• The Datapath.io appliance connects to the hosted application via

VLANs. Every VLAN denotes a single customer‘s application which has

an individual IP routing in the internet.



• An optimized routing policy is generated for specific metrics based on

customer requirements that have been indicated.

• The optimized routing policy is generated by matching the

performance attributes of each destination network prefix in the

network to the customers’ requirements.

• Once the prefixes match the performance requirements of the

customers they can opt to override the best path selection of the

Border Gateway Protocol.


Performance Data Collection

The Internet- 600,000 Prefixes

AS123AS126AS127 AS125

AS124

Route views

Spark Engine

Datapath.io probes all network prefixes for Bandwidth, Packet loss, Latency, Availability

Datapath.io Routing Engine

Get a list of Network Prefixes

Analyze Performance data to compute optimized routing policy.


Deployment

• The Datapath.io appliance supports three flavors of

integration into a service provider‘s network:

• Cloud / Infrastructure as a Service

• Metro Cross Connect

• Existing Infrastructure


Deployment: Cloud / IaaS

• The Cloud / IaaS-Deployment places the Datapath.io appliance between the

virtual infrastructure and the transit providers. The connection to the virtual

infrastructure is a physical connect (i.e. AWS DirectConnect 1Gbase-LX or

10Gbase-LR).

• Each customer is connected to the appliance using a unique VLAN identifier.


Deployment: Cloud / IaaS

10G Upstream Connects

Datapath.ioAppliance

Leaseweb FRA Transit ProviderDatapath.io premises End user

10GConnect

Per-tenantVLAN


Deployment: Metro Cross Connect

• Metro Cross Connects are used to connect hosting providers

to the Datapath.io service in the same metro region. The

cross-connect is used analogously to the physical connect of

the cloud deployment.


Deployment: Metro Cross Connect

10GConnect


Datapath.ioAppliance

Leaseweb FRA Transit Provider

Per-tenantVLAN

City Cross Connect Datapath.io premises End user


Deployment: Existing Infrastructure

• The Datapath.io appliance can integrate into existing networks using the internal

Border Gateway Protocol.

• The router of the hosting provider and the transit providers are not replaced thus

providing investment protection.

• Instead, the router is configured as a route reflector that peers with the Datapath.io

appliance.

• According to the requirements of the application, the Datapath.io appliance overrides

the local preference of certain routes and communicates them back to the router of

the hosting provider.


Deployment: Existing Infrastructure


Datapath.io Appliance

Co-location Space Transit ProviderPerimeter of hosting provider End user

Router of Hosting Provider

iBGP


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