VNEXT: Virtual network management for Xen-based Testbeds

Abstract

Network testbeds strongly rely on virtualization that allows the simultaneous execution of multiple protocol stacks but also increases the management and control tasks. This paper presents a system to control and manage virtual networks based on the Xen platform. The goal of the proposed system is to assist network administrators to perform decision making in this challenging virtualized environment. The system management and control tasks consist of defining virtual networks, turning on, turning off, migrating virtual routers, and monitoring the virtual networks within few mouse clicks thanks to a user-friendly graphical interface. The administrator can also perform highlevel decisions, such as redefining the virtual network topology by using the plane-separation and loss-free live migration functionality, or saving energy by shutting down physical routers. Our performance tests assure the system has low response time; for instance, less than 3 minutes to create 4-node virtual networks.

Achieving Reproducible Network Environments with INSALATA

“…vBET [18] and LaasNetExp [24] are both closed source, preventing to extend those frameworks. VNEXT [25] and NEPTUNE [5] do not provide the automated setup of basic network services, like DNS or DHCP. Emulab [34] or DETER [4] tightly couple the infrastructure setup and the experiment execution.…”

Vulnerabilities and solutions for isolation in FlowVisor-based virtual network environments

“…FITS assumes a pluralist approach, in which virtual networks are located in one or spread across various physical nodes. The FITS testbed allows the user to choose between a conventional packet forwarding approach, through the user's virtual machines (VMs), or a plane separation approach [8], in which packet forwarding is performed by the physical machine, according to control information provided by the VMs. Plane separation increases the forwarding capacity of the virtual network and also allows the VMs to spend resources executing other processes, instead of processing packet forwarding.…”

Column generation approach for one-shot virtual network embedding

“…To circumvent these issues, the concept of network virtualization [1] has been proposed as new resource management technique promising to overcome Internet ossification by allowing multiple customized Virtual Networks (VNs) to be setup on a shared physical infrastructure. In literature, a number of proposals for network virtualization architecture have been proposed in several contexts [2]- [4]. For convenience, we will adopt in this work 4WARD architecture, where in a VN, three main players are identified, namely the Physical Infrastructure Providers (PIPs), Virtual Network Providers (VNPs), and Virtual Network Operators (VNOs), more details can be found in [2].…”