Network Virtualization

Description | Publications | People | Collaborators | Funding

Description

Network virtualization provides a powerful way to run multiple networks, each customized to a specific purpose, at the same time over a shared substrate. Our research on network virtualization focuses on two main scenarios. First, we consider the role of virtualization in running multiple experiments simultaneously in a shared experimental facility. For example, the NSF GENI initiative focuses on the design and deployment of a shared, wide-area experimental facility to support a wide range of research in networking and distributed systems. The VINI project is a step in that direction, supporting experimentation with new routing, forwarding, and addressing schemes on a shared facility built on top on general-purpose processors. Second, we consider the role of virtualization to support multiple architectures simultaneously as a long-term solution for the future Internet. The Cabo project explores the benefits of running customized architectures, as well as how a virtualized system enables an economic refactoring of a future Internet into infrastructure providers (that own and operate the equipment) and service providers (who lease virtual components and offer end-to-end services to users). All three projects grapple with the technical challenges of providing a virtualized, programmable substrate that operates at high speed; the Cabo project must address the additional challenges of building a substrate that can operate without any dependency on the existing Internet.

Publications

Cabo: Concurrent Architectures are Better than One

Yi Wang, Jacobus van der Merwe, and Jennifer Rexford, "VROOM: Virtual ROuters On the Move," Proc. ACM SIGCOMM HotNets Workshop, November 2007.

Yaping Zhu, Jennifer Rexford, Andy Bavier, and Nick Feamster, "UFO: A resilient layered routing architecture," Princeton University technical report TR-780-07, June 2007.

Nick Feamster, Lixin Gao, and Jennifer Rexford, "How to lease the Internet in your spare time," in the Editorial Zone of ACM SIGCOMM Computer Communications Review, p. 61-64, January 2007 (slides). A longer version appears as Georgia Tech Technical Report GT-CSS-06-10, August 2006.

Jennifer Rexford, "Different strokes for different folks: Or, how I learned to stop worrying and love virtualization," position statement, WIRED Workshop, October 2006 (slides).

VINI: Virtual Network Infrastructure (web site radio interview)

Minlan Yu, Yung Yi, Jennifer Rexford, and Mung Chiang, "Rethinking virtual network embedding: Substrate support for path splitting and migration," ACM SIGCOMM Computer Communications Review, April 2008. An earlier version appeared as Princeton University Computer Science Technical Report TR-788-07, July 2007.

Sapan Bhatia, Murtaza Motiwala, Wolfgang Muhlbauer, Vytautas Valancius, Andy Bavier, Nick Feamster, Larry Peterson, and Jennifer Rexford, "Hosting virtual networks on commodity hardware," Georgia Tech Computer Science Technical Report GT-CS-07-10, January 2008.

Andy Bavier, Nick Feamster, Mark Huang, Larry Peterson, and Jennifer Rexford, "In VINI Veritas: Realistic and controlled network experimentation," Proc. ACM SIGCOMM, September 2006 (Andy's slides, SIGCOMM discussion).

GENI: Global Environment for Network Innovations (web site)

Larry Peterson, Tom Anderson, Dan Blumenthal, Dean Casey, David Clark, Deborah Estrin, Joe Evans, Dipankar Raychaudhuri, Mike Reiter, Jennifer Rexford, Scott Shenker, and John Wroclawski, "GENI design principles," in IEEE Computer, September 2006.

Jennifer Rexford, editor, "GENI backbone run-time software for experimenters," GENI Design Document 06-36, Backbone Working Group, November 2006.

Sampath Rangarajan and Jennifer Rexford, editors, "Backbone sofware architecture," GENI Design Document 06-25, Backbone Working Group, September 2006.

People

Jennifer Rexford
Eric Keller (co-advised with Andy Bavier)
Minlan Yu (co-advised with Kai Li and Andy Bavier)
Yaping Zhu, Internet routing and network virtualization

Collaborators

Andy Bavier (Princeton, VINI)
Nick Feamster (Georgia Tech, Cabo and VINI)
Marc Fiuczynski (Princeton, VINI)
Lixin Gao (UMass-Amherst, Cabo)
Scott Karlin (Princeton, VINI)
Larry Peterson (Princeton, GENI and VINI)
GENI planning group and working groups

Funding

These projects are funded by grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF). The initial work on VINI was partially funded by an HSARPA grant. In addition, the Abiliene Internet2 and National Lambda Rail backbones have generously provided the VINI nodes with co-location, bandwidth, and hands-and-eyes support.