HA/TCP - A Reliable and Scalable Framework for TCP Network Functions

Learn about HA/TCP, a novel framework designed to enable migration and failover of layer 7 network functions in this 15-minute conference presentation from NSDI '25. Discover how researchers from the University of Waterloo developed a reliable and scalable solution that addresses the critical challenges of maintaining high availability for complex network infrastructure components like WAN accelerators, load balancers, and proxies. Explore the innovative replication mechanism that synchronizes state between replicas with minimal overhead, allowing for seamless TCP connection migration and failover. Understand how the framework's replicated socket interface simplifies the process for developers to add high availability features to their layer 7 network functions. Examine the impressive performance benchmarks demonstrating that HA/TCP maintains reliability for 100 Gbps network functions with only a 0.2% decrease in client throughput, while achieving transparent connection migration between replicas in just 38 microseconds including network latency. Review real-world implementation results showing how the framework provides reliability to SOCKS proxies and WAN accelerators with less than 2% throughput decrease and modest CPU usage increases, making it a practical solution for modern network infrastructure requirements.