Kubernetes Load-balancing and related network functions using P4

Abstract

This paper highlights the use of the P4 language for the development of a Kubernetes load balancer and related network functions that address scale, security, and network performance requirements. Load balancers have multiple deployment scenarios from edge to data center clusters, including per-node application load distributions. A P4 data plane running on an Infrastructure Processing Unit (IPU) can serve as a highly performant, secure and flexible data plane for Container Network Interfaces (CNI) like Calico. Using P4, we can identify the packet headers and operator specific fields for load balancing with consistent service delivery across multi-cloud environments. Challenges like per flow monitoring, on-demand autoscaling and adding network policy ACLs (Access Control Lists) can be addressed with software and P4 data plane extensions on an IPU, eventually paving the path for modernized service mesh delivery.