An Automated System for Emulated Network Experimentation
Simon Knight presented our paper, An Automated System for Emulated Network Experimentation, at CoNEXT 2013 in Santa Barbara.
Emulated networks and systems, where router and server software are run in virtual environments, allow network op- erators and researchers to perform experiments at large scale more economically than in testbeds. Running real code pro- vides a greater level of realism than simulation.
However, large scale comes with a problem: running real software means each test needs at least as much configura- tion as a real network. To recognise the true value of emula- tion at scale, we need to reduce the complexity of building, configuring, deploying, and measuring emulated networks.
We present a system to facilitate emulation by provid- ing translation from a high-level network design into a con- crete set of configurations that are automatically deployed into one of several emulation platforms. Our system can be used to construct multi-domain networks in minutes, and is scalable to networks with over a thousand devices. It is modular, allowing support for different protocols, topology designs, and target platforms: Quagga, JunOS, IOS, etc. Users, from both the research community and industry, have already demonstrated its value in research and education.