Network Virtualization

In collaboration with Open Networking Laboratory (ON.Lab) we are developing OpenVirteX, a network virtualization platform that enables operators to create and manage virtual Software Defined Networks (vSDNs). Tenants are free to specify the topology and addressing scheme of their vSDN, and run their own Network Operating System (NOS) to control it. Since OpenVirteX logically decouples vSDNs from the infrastructure, it also enables the introduction of features such as link and switch resiliency, and network snapshotting and migration of these tenant networks. Our evaluations of this implementation show that i) OpenVirteX is capable of presenting tenants with configurable vSDNs while incurring a modest overhead to the control channel, and ii) that our architecture enables the introduction of features and enhancements such as link resilience to tenant networks. Preliminary experimental performance evaluation of OVX shows

• It adds minimal latency (fraction of a millisecond) as a control proxy on the control channel and the latency is independent of the physical network size and number of virtual networks and it is 50% of that for other similar network slicing or virtualization platforms such as FlowVisor or FlowN.
• It takes up to a few tens of seconds to provision virtual networks of user specified topology and complexity.

We have deployed OVX on Internet 2 NDDI, a nation-wide research network, to demonstrate its capabilities in a live physical WAN. We run two vSDNs, one a copy of the I2 topology and the other, a single giant switch. Each vSDN was controlled by its own network OS, ONOS and Floodlight, respectively, which ran unique applications on I2 WAN.

We plan to scale OVX, fix bugs and improve reliability, add features such as plug-in for the OpenStack, and most importantly deploy OVX in a SDN based cloud setting to demonstrate network virtualization with OVX in an operational setting.