[Nets-seminars] Talk today (LATE START)

Richard G. Clegg richard at richardclegg.org
Fri Nov 11 14:39:18 GMT 2011


Today's talk will be at 16:30 (not 16:00 as previously advertised) in 
GS/302.

Richard Clegg and Stuart Clayman -- Experiments with virtual routers

Validating research ideas for new protocols or architectures requiring 
large topologies is difficult. Simulation results can be doubtful and 
referees often raise queries about the quality of simulation used. On 
the other hand, testbed work can often limit the size of network 
investigated. Even with system virtual machines such as Xen or VMWare, 
the number of nodes tested can be quite small. In this work a 
lightweight router running in a java virtual machine (JVM) has been 
developed. This is a fully functioning router which can be used to test 
research ideas. Existing software can be adapted to the virtual router 
socket API and hence the software can be tested on a realistic 
large-scale architecture and in an environment where routing and packet 
delivery can be unreliable. Even on a modest sized testbed with only 
nine machines, topologies with up to 720 routers have been tested. This 
talk describes the virtual router and the testbed which has been 
developed and the software which has been ported to use it. A motivating 
example of research into placement and selection of management and 
monitoring nodes is described in detail to show how the platform has 
been successful in testing algorithms.

-- 
Richard G. Clegg,
Dept of Elec. Eng.,
University College London
http://www.richardclegg.org/




More information about the Nets-seminars mailing list