Managing the network with Merlin

Robert Soulé, Shrutarshi Basu, Robert Kleinberg, Emin Gün Sirer, Nate Foster

Abstract: This paper presents the Merlin network management framework. With Merlin, administrators express network policy using programs in a declarative language based on logical predicates and regular expressions. The Merlin compiler automatically partitions these programs into components that can be placed on a variety of devices including switches, middleboxes, and end hosts. It uses a constraint solver and parameterizable heuristics to allocate resources such as paths and bandwidth. To ease the administration of federated networks, Merlin provides mechanisms for delegating management of sub-policies to tenants, along with tools for verifying that delegated sub-policies do not violate global constraints. Overall, Merlin simplifies the task of network administration by providing high-level abstractions for directly specifying network policy.