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Learn about PACKS, a novel approximate PIFO scheduler that addresses critical limitations in programmable packet scheduling through this 15-minute conference presentation from NSDI '25. Discover how researchers from ETH Zürich, BME-TMIT, USC, and Microsoft Research developed a solution that simultaneously captures both scheduling behavior and admission control - two essential aspects that previous approaches failed to address together. Explore the technical challenges of implementing Push-In First-Out (PIFO) queues in hardware at line rate and understand how PACKS overcomes these limitations by running on priority queues while using packet-rank information and queue-occupancy levels during enqueue operations. Examine the comprehensive evaluation results showing PACKS reduces rank inversions by up to 7× and 15× compared to SP-PIFO and AIFO respectively, decreases packet drops by up to 60%, and improves mean flow completion time for small flows by up to 33% under pFabric ranks. Gain insights into the P4 implementation details and learn how PACKS achieves line-rate performance on existing Intel Tofino hardware, making it a practical solution for network operators seeking flexible packet scheduling capabilities.
