Automatic VLAN creation based on on-line measurement

Abstract

Virtual LANs (VLANs) permit hosts connected to a LAN switch to be grouped together into logical groups as a function of some management policy rather than simply of their physical location. Commercial LAN switches support a variety of policies based on either physical or logical addresses, protocol types, tagged frames, or user defined rules. The objective of these policies is the same: to reduce the amount of traffic that needs to be routed by grouping together hosts which are likely to communicate with each other into the same virtual LAN. This paper proposes a novel and more direct approach, it shows how VLANs can be created and removed dynamically as a function of the measured traffic patterns across the network. This is both simpler than configuring many static rules and permits the VLAN configuration to adapt to the evolution in the traffic patterns. The latter point is especially important in future LANs supporting peer-to-peer continuous media services, such as IP telephony or video-conferencing, in which clusters of hosts come together to communicate with each other intensively for relatively short periods of time and then form into new clusters.

Characterizing VLAN-induced sharing in a campus network

“…In contrast, we study the relationships between IP-layer paths and layer-2 paths, and the effects of this sharing on redundancy and diagnosis. Rooney et al proposed dynamic VLAN provisioning based on traffic patterns [14]; our study could inform a similar provisioning strategy for improving fault tolerance in IP networks (e.g., configuring VLANs so that disjoint IP paths are not routed over the same layer-2 infrastructure).…”

On I/O Virtualization Management

“…Similar problems arise when creating virtual networks across large infrastructures, as described in [5], that describes a method for instantiating and deploying security and isolation mechanisms in virtualized environments. Rooney et al describe a method for automatic VLAN creation, based on on-line measurement [11], while [3] describes a resource provisioning scheme regarding resource availability. These technologies can simplify network management when combined to automatically instantiate and control data channels in a virtualized environment.…”

Enabling Peer Cooperation in Private Local Area Networks using BitTorrent

“…Also, it implies distributing this data to several computers connected to a LAN, and since some organizations tend to be large and geographically separated, several LANs may be part of the organization's network, or a VLAN [25] Considering that these LANs may be located in distinct locations, they are interconnected using the Internet with bandwidths much smaller than the ones typically found in a LAN. These connections to the Internet are provided by different carriers (i.e.…”