The article describes the recent standardisation initiatives for packet reordering metrics in IP networks, the methods of measuring it and also provides a discussion of the common factors affecting ordered packet delivery, based on real examples.

OpenFlow is a leading standard for Software-Defined Networking (SDN) and has already played a significant role in reshaping network infrastructures. However, a wide range of existing provider domains is still not equipped with a framework that supports wider deployment of an OpenFlow-based control plane beyond Ethernetdominated networks. We address this gap by introducing a Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) which can transform legacy network elements into OpenFlow capable devices. This paper details the functional architecture of HAL, discusses the key design aspects and explains how HAL can support a number of network device classes. In addition, this paper presents the implementation details of HAL for hardware platforms such as DOCSIS (Data over Cable Service Interface Specification) and DWDM (Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing) which have so far received little attention by the OpenFlow research community despite their wide real-world deployment.

MPLS is a Network Control Plane (NCP) architecture that implements the concept of Grid Network Services (GNS). In the Phosphorus framework, GNS allows the provisioning of network and Grid resources in a single-step through a set of seamlessly integrated procedures. The implementation of GNS poses a number of requirements on the Control Planes of the underlying network infrastructure. This article describes the GNS requirements such as Grid resource discovery, service resiliency, Authorization Authentication Accounting (AAA), and advance reservation services, which are the main trigger factors of the G 2 MPLS control plane architectures (Overlay and Integrated), services procedures and the Gridenabled network interfaces provided by IST Phosphorus project.

Abstract. BonFIRE offers a Future Internet, multi-site, cloud testbed, targeted at the Internet of Services community, that supports large scale testing of applications, services and systems over multiple, geographically distributed, heterogeneous cloud testbeds. The aim of BonFIRE is to provide an infrastructure that gives experimenters the ability to control and monitor the execution of their experiments to a degree that is not found in traditional cloud facilities. The BonFIRE architecture has been designed to support key functionalities such as: resource management; monitoring of virtual and physical infrastructure metrics; elasticity; single document experiment descriptions; and scheduling. As for January 2012 BonFIRE release 2 is operational, supporting seven pilot experiments. Future releases will enhance the offering, including the interconnecting with networking facilities to provide access to routers, switches and bandwidth-on-demand systems. BonFIRE will be open for general use late 2012.