Deploying Stateful Network Functions Efficiently using Large Language Models

Stateful network functions are increasingly used in data centers. However, their scalability remains a significant challenge since parallelizing packet processing across multiple cores requires careful configuration t o avoid compromising the application's semantics or performance. This challenge is particularly important when deploying multiple stateful functions on multi-core servers. This paper proposes FlowMage, a system that leverages Large Language Models (LLMs) to perform code analysis and extract essential information from stateful network functions (NFs) prior to their deployment on a server. FlowMage uses this data to find an efficient configuration of an NF chain that maximizes performance while preserving the semantics of the NF chain. Our evaluation shows that, utilizing GPT-4, FlowMage is able to find and apply optimized configuration when deploying stateful NFs chain on a server, resulting in significant p erformance improvement (up to 11×) in comparison to the default configuration of the system.