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NUMA Siloing in the FreeBSD Network Stack [pdf]

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Re: NUMA Siloing in the FreeBSD Network Stack [pdf]

#41

Post by amelius »

mosselman wrote: post #3

Isn't it great that we work in an industry where a company like Netflix, which has increasing competition lately, just shares potential competitive advantages like this? I get that, in part, this is a way to get people excited to work for Netflix, however, the people working on this are, probably, pretty proud of what they achieved and thus like to share it with us, their colleagues at other places of work and they h…

Perhaps it's just because researchers need to publish in order to, you know, build their careers.

Re: NUMA Siloing in the FreeBSD Network Stack [pdf]

#42

Post by bsder »

tiffanyh wrote: post #34

It’s my understanding that many organizations prefer *BSDs over Linux not because BSD is more performant ... but because you’re way more likely to get your organizations patch accepted into the upstream than Linux.

I doubt that is the case. The FreeBSD guys can be just as hardass about submissions as the Linux folks. However, there are considerations:

1) GPL vs BSD licenses. Companies like BSD licenses much more than GPL licenses. GPL adherents can whine all they want, but this is simply true.

2) BSD has a long history of having very good networking stacks--albeit on specific hardware. Linux supported everything initially--including really cheap crap--and consequently its networking stack was a lot more ad hoc. FreeBSD chose specific hardware for stability--but then supported that much more completely.

3) FreeBSD has a long history of being the servers in Internet infrastructure. There are specific architectural choices in the kernel because of this. There is probably still some inertia, too, in that the kind of old guard people who REALLY grok networking are still more comfortable on FreeBSD machines.

Consequently, it is hardly surprising that an advanced networking development would take place on FreeBSD.

Re: NUMA Siloing in the FreeBSD Network Stack [pdf]

#43

Post by amelius »

If they are just serving/streaming static data from a single server, wouldn't an entirely different architecture make more sense? For example, why even use a CPU? They have the financial resources to build their own hardware, e.g. encryption ASICs, and they can do interesting things like bundle the pipeline for multiple viewers watching the same movie at the same timepoint.

Re: NUMA Siloing in the FreeBSD Network Stack [pdf]

#44

Post by 0xdeadb00f »

thomasjudge wrote: post #40

This may be a dumb question, but why would streaming video need to be encrypted? Is this just part of the "encrypt everything" best practice these days? Is there metadata accompanying the video data that shouldn't be unencrypted? Is it just so it's not possible to eavesdrop on the fact that I'm watching "Marvelous Mrs. Maisel"?

The main reason is probably DRM.

Re: NUMA Siloing in the FreeBSD Network Stack [pdf]

#45

Post by [deleted] »

thomasjudge wrote: post #40

This may be a dumb question, but why would streaming video need to be encrypted? Is this just part of the "encrypt everything" best practice these days? Is there metadata accompanying the video data that shouldn't be unencrypted? Is it just so it's not possible to eavesdrop on the fact that I'm watching "Marvelous Mrs. Maisel"?

[deleted]

Re: NUMA Siloing in the FreeBSD Network Stack [pdf]

#46

Post by virtuallynathan »

amelius wrote: post #43

If they are just serving/streaming static data from a single server, wouldn't an entirely different architecture make more sense? For example, why even use a CPU? They have the financial resources to build their own hardware, e.g. encryption ASICs, and they can do interesting things like bundle the pipeline for multiple viewers watching the same movie at the same timepoint.

Commodity server gear is really cheap, and is more or less "fast enough". The wins from serving say, >1Tbps from a 1U box with an ASIC or FPGA is negated by the downsides of having such a large failure domain, and the cost of development for what would be a pretty low volume part.

We talk about this stuff every once in a while, but it doesn't really make sense to do right now. (Disclaimer: I work at Netflix)

Re: NUMA Siloing in the FreeBSD Network Stack [pdf]

#48

Post by crispyporkbites »

thomasjudge wrote: post #40

This may be a dumb question, but why would streaming video need to be encrypted? Is this just part of the "encrypt everything" best practice these days? Is there metadata accompanying the video data that shouldn't be unencrypted? Is it just so it's not possible to eavesdrop on the fact that I'm watching "Marvelous Mrs. Maisel"?

It’s for privacy. That’s all you need to know.

Re: NUMA Siloing in the FreeBSD Network Stack [pdf]

#49

Post by DSingularity »

drewg123 wrote: post #23

Author here: The talk will be on Youtube eventually, and a lot of points are explained in more detail in the actual talk. I was just going to bed in advance of traveling back to the states tomorrow, but I'll try to answer any question in the morning.

Do you think these kinds of results can be achieved through improved schedulers and allocators?

Re: NUMA Siloing in the FreeBSD Network Stack [pdf]

#50

Post by pg_is_a_butt »

thomasjudge wrote: post #40

This may be a dumb question, but why would streaming video need to be encrypted? Is this just part of the "encrypt everything" best practice these days? Is there metadata accompanying the video data that shouldn't be unencrypted? Is it just so it's not possible to eavesdrop on the fact that I'm watching "Marvelous Mrs. Maisel"?

Not just eavesdrop on the fact, but eavesdrop on the movie itself and watch it right along with you for free.
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