Ouroboros

 This page is under construction  

Summary

Ouroboros is a prototype packet-switched network. It is based on a redesign of the current packet networking model – from the programming API almost to the wire. If we had to describe Ouroboros in a single sentence, it would be micro-services architecture applied to the network itself.

From an application perspective, an Ouroboros network is a “black box” with a simple application programming interface to request communication services. Ouroboros can provision a unicast flow - a (bidirectional) channel that delivers messages or a byte-stream with some requested operational parameters such as maximum delay and bandwidth, protection against packet loss and authentication of peers and encryption of in-flight data; or it provides a broadcast flow to a set of joined programs.

From an administrative perspective, an Ouroboros network is a bunch of daemons that can be thought of as software routers (unicast) or software hubs (broadcast) that can be connected to each other; again through a simple management API.

While the prototype is not directly compatible with TCP/IP or POSIX sockets, it has interfaces and tools to run over Ethernet or UDP, or to create IP/Ethernet tunnels over Ouroboros by exposing tap or tun devices.

Objectives

Internet is resilient against attacks on infrastructure (hardware), but vulnerable to attacks from within on configuration.

Robust configuration

Microservice configuration requires for each individual component

• networking capability checks (SSL, IPv6, ...)
• configuration, usually in different formats

Prevent ossification

HTTP has taken over the role of 'narrow waist' anymore from IP, reverse proxy has become the service endpoint. The protocol stack up to TCP/UDP port 443 is becoming more and more ossified.

Key Features

Single point of Contact

Flow allocator - authentication before first application byte

Single point of Configuration

Instead of having network configuration per application