NetChain

Class project at Johns Hopkins University: Implement Netchains using P4 and Python

How to run

1. Execute run_demo.sh to start the Mininet CLI
2. Type xterm h1 (you can substitute h1 with h2 or h3)
3. Execute kv.py h1 on the xterm (again, substituting h1 with whatever host you're using).
4. Allowed commands are put [key] [value] and get [key]. Use ctrl+C to exit.

Comments

Dr. Jin said during his office hour on May 8 to insert the keys in initialization time, since doing otherwise is difficult with how Mininet works. As a result, only keys between 0 to 199 are supported, so that starting up the demo wouldn't take a long time.

I didn't do the switch failure detection/recovery part.

Individual file descriptions

• make_commands.py: Used to generate the command text files. Can be executed without command line arguments
• route.py: Setting up NetChain. Near the top are the hard-coded values of max_key and nb_vnodes that can be changed if needed. If they are changed, make_commands.py needs to be re-executed.
• topo.txt: The network setup
• topo.py: I've added a couple lines so that different switches receive different commands.
• kv.py: Sending and receiving packets that interacts with the NetChain key-value store.
• run_demo.sh: I was given this file from other parts of the assignment and I didn't touch it.
• p4src/source_routing.p4: P4 code that controls the router