Real-time Delay Measurement in SD-WAN based on In-band Network Telemetry

Wide Area Networks (WANs) are essential for enabling communication among different branches within enterprises, ultimately improving operational efficiency and fostering economic advancement. However, the traditional WAN solutions often struggles to meet the diverse needs of geographically dispersed organizations. The advent of Software-Defined Wide Area Network (SD-WAN) solutions represents a paradigm shift, harnessing Software-Defined Networking (SDN) principles to transcend the limitations inherent in traditional WAN architectures. However, the necessity for advanced monitoring solutions persists as fundamental in guaranteeing optimal performance and unwavering reliability. This paper proposes the integration of In-band Network Telemetry in SD-WANs through Extended Berkeley Packet Filter (eBPF) technology to assess network performance parameters, such as the delay, in real-time. This work addresses the increasing demand for performance, security and reliability in such network architectures by leveraging INT capabilities for monitoring and manipulating data packets. Through the exploitation of eBPF’s features and network programmability, we introduce a novel approach aimed at measuring the end-to-end delay across SD-WAN deployments.