Work package 2: The virtual networking environment
| Workpackage chair | LIP6 |
| Partners | Devoteam, Netcenter, Ginkgo, PUC, telecom SudParis, UFRJ, Unicamp |
The Horizon project will be interested in the
control of virtual networks.
Within this project, virtualisation mechanisms will be used to
virtualise
entire networks. A single physical network is virtualised to a number
of concurrent
virtual networks, sharing the same physical resources. Each virtual
network
consists of virtual routers and has its own protocol stack. XEN 2.0 is
an
example of virtualization technique enabling such features. The
virtualisation
software (hypervisor) of XEN runs as OS directly on the hardware.
Figure 8
shows how a physical interface can be shared by multiple virtual
machines with
XEN2.0.
This enables a physical network to support several different network
architectures simultaneously. VINI is an example of such virtual
network
infrastructures. The network element hardware is virtualised, enabling
different
virtual network elements on a single device. Different virtual networks
are
separated from each other and are unaware of their virtualisation, the
underlying physical network, or their concurrency to other virtual
networks.
Virtual routers may be created, destroyed, moved, cloned, started, and
stopped
on the underlying hardware.
Fig.
8. Virtualization of a
physical interface
Control of Virtual Networks
The virtualization of resources on virtual
networks allows the creation of
multiple virtual networks that use different communication protocols
and
paradigms. As an example, a CISCO packet-switched virtual network may
coexist with
a Junos packet-switched virtual network. Figure 9 illustrates a
virtualised
physical network consisting of four virtual networks that use different
protocol stacks.
Advanced algorithms must be developed to gather
information about virtual
networks, the load of virtual routers, the physical network, the
remaining
capacities of the physical network, and the currently supported and
required
services. Control schemes are crucial tasks in virtual networks since
resources
are shared by the different virtual networks. Two kinds of control
could be
addressed: the control of the resources of the underlying real networks
and the
optimization of the control algorithms in the control plane of each
virtual network.
In the Horizon project, activity parameters and capabilities from
physical
networks that have to be virtualised will be identified, enabling
service
driven virtualisation of networks. To achieve this, physical and
virtual resources
have to be monitored to gather information for a flexible control of
the
virtual networks. Some control algorithms have to be identified or
conceived to
define:
- The best virtual network for transporting a new flow entering the
physical network. This choice depends on the profile, the
- Physical resource distribution between the different virtual networks
to
satisfy the previous requirement. Indeed, both types of control schemes
have to
be correlated.
Interfaces for monitoring, managing, and controlling the virtual
networks
will be defined, reflecting the security concepts of the architecture.
Finally an appropriate virtualisation solution has to be found to
support
the interfaces as far as possible, by comparing available
virtualisation
solutions. The most appropriate answer will correspond to the solution
that meets
the required performance and the defined interfaces. The VirtuOR
(subcontractor
of LIP6) first beta virtual routers will be tested and could be
improved to
meet the previous requirement. Indeed, a trade-off between isolation
and
performance will have to be chosen. More precisely, the virtual routers
will
have to comply with ToIP traffics, and the hypervisor will have to be
chosen or
defined, or modified to perform such a constraints. This problem is
also
depending on the control algorithms and the choices that will be
decided by the
project. For example, it can be decided to multiplex all ToIP traffics
on a
unique virtual network or to share the flows between all the virtual
networks,
or to have an intermediate solution.
This work package will be divided into three tasks.
Task
1: Identification and
Comparison of Appropriate Virtualisation Solutions
This task will evaluate the existing solutions
to identify which meet the
requirements of virtual networks: Performance requirements, security
issues,
monitoring capabilities, and management capabilities.
The interfaces defined in this task are used to
interact with the
virtual/physical resources and the piloting system defined in WP3. The
interfaces will consider management and control of the flows entering
the network
and the allocation of physical resources. These interfaces must support
the
security concepts of the architecture (mainly the isolation between the
different virtual networks). Indeed, when looking at Figure 3, the
interfaces
to be defined will link up the virtualisation plane and the control
&
management planes and through these planes the data and piloting
planes. The
VirtuOR virtual router should be the basis for defining these
interfaces.
Task
3: Modification/adoption
of the Identified Virtualisation Solution
This task will
provide virtual resources that adhere to the defined
interfaces. It will also address the
efinition
of the task Deadline Leader
