Hi Joe,
Thanx for the reply. Regarding:
> > Currently,
> > there is much work going on in GENI on control frameworks for
> > provisioning a virtual aggregate (a network slice and compute
> > resources).
>
> This is not network virtualization. I.e., when we deal with
> an OS, we don't try to standardize the provisioning of
> memory, processing capacity, etc. Processes don't ask for 20%
> of a CPU; they just ask to run. Processes don't ask for 20%
> of memory, they ask for it in terms they need (bytes).
> Similarly, virtual networks ask for resources in terms they
> need (addresses, links, and reserved link capacity, i.e.,
> provisioning). We need a common way to express how to
> virtualize the network (which most "virtualization" systems
> don't really do anyway) before we can standardize how its
> resources are manged.
>
GENI has the notion of RSPECs which I believe are designed to allow
virtual network providers to ask for resources. There has also been some
recent work in 4WARD along these lines. Are you saying that the way
these proposals are designed doesn't really address the need or perhaps
that they need some modification?
One of the issues we've been discussing here at ER is that there is
already a collection of deployed data plane techniques to support
network virtualization. For dedicated bandwith, the techniques run from
dedicated lambdas up to MPLS LSPs in IP networks and PBB-TE tunnels in
Metro Ethernet. For nondedicated bandwidth, there are IP-IP tunnels,
maybe one could even view HIP as a kind of tunnel. Are these techniques
insufficient?
If you grant that these techniques are sufficient, then the primary
issue becomes how to construct a virtual network in a cross provider
way. This today, as far as I can determine, is impossible except if you
run over IP. The issue you cite above, namely how to name and allocate
resources, is a big one, also interoperability between providers to
allow the slices to be plumbed together. There is also a question of
timescale. Most providers require a timescale of days to set up a
virtual network like a VPN. I believe the vision of most researchers is
such virtual networks to be available on demand.
So our view on this is that the work is primarily needed in constructing
a control plane that allows virtual network slices to be constructed
from resources obtained from different ISPs by a virtual network
provider. And then to connect the network resources up to end host
resources (which may involve clouds or end host virtual machines). This
seems to me what GENI is trying to address, maybe Trilogy and Akari as
well (I am not that familiar with them).
jak
Note Well: Messages sent to this mailing list are the opinions of the senders and do not imply endorsement by the IETF.