Porting a network measurement infrastructure on an unikernel

By Maxime Letemple

The main objective of this internship was the porting of a network measurement infrastructure on an unikernel, named Scamper. A unikernel is a specialized, lightweight, single-purpose virtual machine that combines an application and the minimal set of operating system (OS) components required to run it. Unlike traditional operating systems, which are designed to support multiple applications and users, a unikernel is designed to run a single application, including only the necessary parts of the OS as part of its build. The unikernel used here is Unikraft.

Comparizon between unikernels and VMs
Comparizon between unikernels and VMs

Results

Compared to traditional solutions like virtual machines and Docker containers, uTNT demonstrated significantly better performance. This internship showcased the potential of unikernels as a platform for high-performance and lightweight network measurement applications.

RAM usage of my work compared to Debian on a VM
RAM usage of my work compared to Debian on a VM

More infos

You can find the repo here, and my report here(in french).