Transparent Optimization of Inter-Virtual Network Function Communication in Open vSwitch

This paper proposes an architecture that can optimize inter-VM communication in an NFV environment through the creation of direct channels between virtual machines. Particularly, our prototype can transparently optimize the data transfer between virtual machines running DPDK applications by dynamically recognizing the existence of point-to-point connections in the traffic steering rules, reverting back to the traditional VM-to-switch-to-VM approach when the optimization is no longer possible. This paper demonstrates the huge advantages of this architecture and the possibility to implement it with localized modifications mainly in Open vSwitch, without touching the applications inside the VMs.