VINI and its Future Directions

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VINI and its Future Directions

• Andy Bavier
• Princeton University
• http//www.cs.princeton.edu/acb

Joint with Nick Feamster, Larry Peterson,
Jennifer Rexford
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Technology Transfer
SIGCOMM paper
Commercial adoption

• Deploy and support a prototype system
• Wide area, longer timescales, real traffic, etc.
• Technical feasibility
• Scalability, robustness under realistic
  conditions
• System integration and testing
• Economic incentives
• Real users potential market

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Overview

• VINI vision
• Enable deployment studies in real networks
• Share the nodes, links using virtualization
• Current status of VINI
• Future directions for VINI
• VINI and the NSF GENI project

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Fixed Infrastructure
VINI nodes in National LambdaRail, Internet2,
PoPs in Seattle and Virginia, CESNET
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Shared Infrastructure
Experiments given illusion of dedicated hardware
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Flexible Topology
VINI supports arbitrary virtual topologies
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Network Events
VINI exposes, can inject network failures
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External Connectivity
s
Experiments can carry traffic for real end-users
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External Routing Adjacencies
s
Experiments can participate in Internet routing
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Overview

• VINI vision
• Enable deployment studies in real networks
• Share the nodes, links using virtualization
• Current status of VINI
• Future directions for VINI
• VINI and the NSF GENI project

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VINI Current Status - Deployment

• Two VINI nodes per site
• Operational sites
• 7 NLR sites
• 9 Internet2 (NewNet) sites
• 2 colo sites Seattle WA, Ashburn VA
• 1 European site CESNET Prague
• 1Gb/s lightpath between Prague and VINI Internet2
  nodes in Chicago

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VINI Status - Virtual Hosts

• VINI based on PlanetLab software
• Simultaneous experiments in separate VMs
• Each has root in its own VM, can customize
• Reserve CPU and bandwidth per experiment

Node Mgr
Local Admin
VM1
VM2
VMn

Virtual Machine Monitor (VMM) (Linux)
PlanetLab node
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VINI Status - Virtual Networks

• Configure a virtual topology for a slice
• Point-to-point virtual Ethernet links
• Slice controls routing table, virtual devices on
  the virtual hosts
• Purpose allow experimentation with routing
  software (e.g., XORP, Quagga) that already runs
  on Linux

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VINI Trellis v0.1
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Overview

• VINI vision
• Enable deployment studies in real networks
• Share the nodes, links using virtualization
• Current status of VINI
• Future directions for VINI
• VINI and the NSF GENI project

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Future Questions for VINI

• How to leverage other testbeds?
• Experiments, user communities, tools, etc.
• How to grow VINI?
• What new features should VINI offer?
• Custom hardware
• Programmable data planes
• How to link a virtual network to the real
  world?
• Real users, real traffic, real routing
  information

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Leveraging Other Testbeds

• Testbed federation mechanisms
• Federate VINI with PlanetLab, Emulab, OneLab
• Create experiments that span multiple testbeds
• Move experiments from one testbed to another
• Open, modular system architecture
• Incorporate Emulab topology creation GUI

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Deploying more VINI nodes

• You can join the public VINI
• CESNET deployment Prague, Pilsen, ???
• Other European research networks?
• You can create your own VINI
• VINI is a private PlanetLab, based on MyPLC
• MyVINI MyPLC VINI kernel, tools
• Development platform or dedicated testbed

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Adding New Features

• VINI technology trade-offs
• Performance (to carry real traffic)
• Isolation (to support multiple experiments)
• Programmability (make it easy to use)
• Custom hardware
• NetFPGA from Stanford
• Supercharged PlanetLab Platform from WUSTL
• Programmable data plane
• Allow users to run Click Modular Software Router
  in Linux kernel, on NetFPGA

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Connecting to the World

• Getting real routing information
• BGP Multiplexer service
• Receive BGP information from real routers
• Advertise routes, experiment becomes ISP
• Getting real traffic
• Deploy wireless access points
• Hide behind a proxy (e.g., game server)
• Leverage existing PlanetLab services (e.g., CDN)

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Overview

• VINI vision
• Enable deployment studies in real networks
• Share the nodes, links using virtualization
• Current status of VINI
• Future directions for VINI
• VINI and the NSF GENI project

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NSFs GENI Vision A national facility to explore
radical designs for a future global networking
infrastructure

• Large, wide-area footprint
• Enables large-scale,end-to-end experiments
• Shared among researchers by virtualization
  slices

Current / projected substrates High capacity
optical nets and programmable cores Large
clusters of CPUs, storage Edge / access
technologies(e.g. cellular, sensor networks)
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How GENI will be used

• GENI is meant to enable . . .
• Trials of new architectures, which may or may
  notbe compatible with todays Internet
• Long-running, realistic experiments with enough
  instrumentation to provide real insights and data
• Opt in for real users into long-running
  experiments
• Large-scale growth for successful experiments, so
  good ideas can be shaken down at scale
• A reminder . . .
• GENI itself is not an experiment !
• GENI is a stable facility on which experiments run

GENI creates a huge opportunity for ambitious
research!
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Spiral DevelopmentGENI grows through a
well-structured, adaptive process

• An achievable starting pointExample Rev 1
  narrow waist, federation of multiple substrates
  (clusters, wireless, regional / national optical
  net with early GENI routers, perhaps some
  existing testbeds), Rev 1 user interface and
  instrumentation.
• Envisioned ultimate goal Example Planning
  Groups desired GENI facility, probably trimmed
  some ways and expanded others. Incorporates
  large-scale distributed computing resources,
  high-speed backbone nodes, nationwide optical
  networks, wireless sensor nets, etc.
• Spiral Development ProcessRe-evaluate goals and
  technologies yearly by a systematic process,
  decide what to prototype and build next.

Planning
Design
Use
Use
Build out
Integration
Strawman GENI Construction Plan
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FederationGENI grows by gluing together
heterogeneous facilities over time
My experiment runs acrossthe evolving GENI
federation.
Wireless1
Corporate GENI facilities
Backbone 1
ComputeCluster1
My GENI Slice
Other-Nation GENI facilities
Access1
Backbone 2
ComputeCluster2
This approach looks remarkably familiar . . .
Other-Nation GENI facilities
Wireless2
NSF parts of GENI
Goals avoid technology lock in, add new
technologies as they mature, and potentially grow
quickly by incorporating existing facilities into
the overall GENI ecosystem
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VINI and the GENI Project

• VINI and PlanetLab can be regarded as small-scale
  prototypes of pieces of GENI
• Goal Be GENI-compliant
• Participate in GENI design efforts
• Implement new GENI interfaces
• Influence GENI development process
• First GENI solicitation Feb 2008

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Conclusion

• VINI is a platform for deployment studies
• Need help growing, developing VINI
• Install VINI nodes in national research networks
• Extend the VINI platform (e.g., federation)
• Perform interesting research on VINI
• Goal influence the GENI effort in the US
• http//www.vini-veritas.net