An end to the middle

摘要: The last fifteen years has seen a vast proliferation of middleboxes to solve all manner persistent limitations in the Internet protocol suite. Examples include firewalls, NATs, load balancers, traffic shapers, deep packet intrusion detection, virtual private networks, network monitors, transparent web caches, content delivery and list goes on on. However, most smaller networks homes, small businesses developing world are left without this level support. Further, management burden apparent even enterprise networks. We argue for shift from using proprietary middle-box harware as dominant tool managing toward open software running end hosts. We show that functionality seemingly must be network, such NATs prioritization, can more cheaply, flexibly, securely provided by distributed hosts, working concert with vastly simplified physical hardware.