Distributed Counting along Lossy Paths without Feedback

Abstract

Network devices need packet counters for a variety of applications. For a large number of concurrent flows, on-chip memories can be too small to support a separate counter per flow. While a single network element might struggle to implement flow accounting on its own, in this work we study alternatives leveraging underutilized resources elsewhere in the network and implement flow accounting on multiple network devices. This paper takes the first step towards understanding the design principles for robust network-wide accounting with lossy unidirectional channels without feedback.