Ouroboros

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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.

Key technology features

Single point of Contact

Flow allocator - authentication before first application byte

Single point of Configuration

Instead of having network configuration per application