Containerization in CPEs
Luca Deri <deri@ntop.org>
@lucaderi
About ntop
• Private
company devoted to development of open
source network traffic monitoring applications.
• R&D
Italy, sales Switzerland.
• ntop
(circa 1998) is
the first app we
released and it is a
web-based network
monitoring
application.
2
What is nProbe?
Flo
t
e
N
Packets
IX
F
P
I
w/
Your Favourite
Netflow Collector
Flows + DPI
nProbe
NetFlow/IPFIX
ntopng
JSO
N
3
nProbe on Nokia Beacon
• Native
OpenWRT support
• Running
inside a container
• Able
to monitor wired and wireless
interfaces.
4
Containers on CPEs: Advantages [1/2]
• Simpler
software lifecycle: upgrade, rollback in case
of problems.
• Multiplay:
add the ability to deploy third party
applications on CPEs by isolating them and thus
avoiding interferences.
• Vendor protection: the manufacturer can keep
control on hardware and device operating system,
while opening up the device to extensions that won’t
break the platform.
5
Containers on CPEs: Advantages [2/2]
• Create
an ecosystem where software developers
can start developing applications for CPEs, bringing
the “App Store” concept to CPEs.
• Vendor
advantages: increase sales and popularity
among users and developers.
6
Containers on CPEs: APIs
• APIs
are important:
◦ Avoid low-level OS integration that might be
complex and not stable across releases and
device models.
◦ Promote application portability and thus increase
the application ecosystem.
◦ Pluggable third-party components (e.g.
application firewall) that can replace/improve
native ones (e.g. similar to virtual switches in VM
virtualisation).
7
Containers on CPEs: Open Source
• Containers
have traditionally simplified software
deployment and maintenance.
• Open
source tools are often difficult to deploy for
most non-admins such as home broadband users.
• Containers
are a great opportunity for open source
developers to spread tools and provide prepackaged ready-to-go containers with popular
network tools (e.g. content enforcement,
advertisement blockers, network usage meters).
8
Containers on CPEs: Home Devices
• Home
automation, streaming servers, IoT are two
trends that fostered the deployment of a plethora of
Raspberry PI-like devices for running simple
software applications permanently at home.
• CPEs
with containerised applications could be the
perfect place for deploying such applications in a
centralised place on reliable hardware instead of
using a few devices that can have security issues if
not properly maintained.
9