Project: VINI: Virtual Network Infrastructure

Jen Rexford and Larry Peterson

http://www.vini-veritas.net/

Project Description: VINI (Virtual Network Infrastructure) is an
experimental facility that allows researchers to evaluate prototypes
of new network protocols and architectures in a controlled and
realistic environment.  Physically, VINI is a distributed collection
of network equipment and circuits, coupled with software that enables
multiple researchers to simultaneously deploy and evaluate their ideas
carrying real user traffic.  VINI is an early prototype of the GENI
backbone, using high-end PCs co-located at NLR and Abilene Points of
Presence (PoPs) as programmable nodes, to support an initial set of
research experiments (such as the recently-funded FIND projects) and
gain insights that can aid the design and implementation of the GENI
facility.

Project Deliverables: The project has four main software deliverables:
(i) kernel/virtual-machine modifications to support extended
virtualization of the network protocol stack, (ii) management system
for instantiating experiments in the VINI substrate, (iii) monitoring
infrastructure to collect data for experiments and the management of
VINI itself, and (iv) reference implementation of experimental
software for IP and related protocols.  In addition, we will deploy
VINI on top of high-end compute nodes in the National Lambda Rail and
Abilene Internet2 backbones, with dedicated bandwidth between the
sites, and support other research groups conducting experiments on top
of the VINI as well as local deployments of the VINI software in their
own labs.

Project Status: At this time, we have completed the following
deliverables in each category.  For item (i), we have built, deployed,
and evaluated an initial prototype of VINI on top of PlanetLab, using
Click and User-Mode Linux inside a slice.  For item (ii), we have
created scripts to automatically create virtual topologies on VINI on
behalf of an experimenter and configure routing protocols for
control-plane experiments.  For item (iii), we have capitalized on the
existing PlanetLab monitoring tools, coupled with conventional tools
such as tcpdump, ping, and traceroute.  For item (iv), we have created
and evaluated a reference design of the IP data and control planes,
called the "Internet in a Slice" using Click, XORP, and OpenVPN on
VINI.  We have evaluated VINI and IIAS on the PlanetLab nodes in the
Abilene backbone and have deployed dedicated VINI nodes at two of the
six planned National Lambda Rail sites.  VINI is described in a
SIGCOMM'06 paper, and we hae made the initial software, along with a
user's guide and developer's guide, available at the VINI Web site at
http://www.vini-veritas.net/ <http://www.vini-veritas.net/> .  Several
other research groups have already begun experimenting with VINI,
providing us with an initial set of users to stress test the VINI
platform.

Planned Demos: We are in discussions with the GENI Wireless Working
Group about having a joint wireless/wired demo that connects wireless
platforms at WINLAB with the VINI backbone to conduct an example
experiment of a network architecture that supports mobile wireless
devices communicating across a wired backbone network.

Relationship to GENI: The VINI projects serves several important goals
in relation to the larger GENI effort.  First, the VINI project
provides an initial facility for researchers to start deploying and
evaluating new network architectures, albeit without the programmable
router hardware or flexible optics envisioned for the GENI backbone.
Second, the design and deployment of VINI will demonstrate the
feasibility of building and operating a wide-area distributed
networking research facility, and will reduce the software risks for
the design of the GENI backbone.  Third, the VINI project will reduce
the user risk by gaining experience with researchers using VINI to
conduct experiments with their new ideas and with the challenges of
having end users "opt in" to experimental services running on top of
VINI.