vSDNEmul: A Software-Defined Network Emulator Based on Container Virtualization

Abstract

The main issue related to Software-Defined Network emulators is how to replicate real behavior in experiments. Mininet and others SDN emulators have an architecture that limits both the scope of experiments and the fidelity of networking tests. Consequently, the serialization, contention, and load of background processes may produce delays that compromise the operation of events such as transmitting a packet or completing a computation, possibly invalidating the performance evaluation of a network emulation. To address these problems, this paper presents vSDNEmul, a network emulator based on Docker container virtualization. Different from Mininet, vSDNEmul isolates each node in a container and interconnects the nodes through virtual or tunnel links. By using containers, vSDNEmul allows autonomous and flexible creation of independent network elements, resulting in more realistic emulations. This paper reports performance evaluations comparing vSDNEmul and Mininet. The results obtained with the vSDNEmul emulator are more realistic and present higher accuracy.

DockSDN: A hybrid container‐based software‐defined networking emulation tool

“…However, it fails to provide scalability and isolation, since experiments with different types of network topologies or resource allocation are not shown. Finally, vSDNEmul 25 and Containernet 30 are the closest of what we are trying to achieve. Both are network emulators based on Docker container virtualization allowing autonomous and flexible creation of independent network elements, resulting in more realistic emulations.…”

“…More recently, the introduction of lightweight virtualization technologies (e.g., containers) has led to some few containerbased emulation tools. 25,29 SDN Owl 29 is a network emulation tool to create SDN testbeds using a few computers with Linux OSs. SDN Owl is based on open source software such as Open vSwitch, Ansible, Docker, and RyU framework to create a simple SDN.…”

“…Among them are ns-3, 19 GNS3, 20 vEmulab, 21 Mininet, 22 OpenNet, 23 fs-sdn, 18 EstiNet, 24 and vSDNEmul. 25 ns-3 19 is one of the most widely used network simulators in the world. For SDN, ns-3 simulates the operations of an OpenFlow switch by compiling and linking a C+ + module, which simulates the behavior of a real one, with its simulation engine code to form a user-level executable program.…”

“…In the context of SDN, not many network simulation or emulation tools exist. Among them are ns‐3, 19 GNS3, 20 vEmulab, 21 Mininet, 22 OpenNet, 23 fs‐sdn, 18 EstiNet, 24 and vSDNEmul 25 . ns‐3 19 is one of the most widely used network simulators in the world.…”

Proposta de planejamento, gerência e otimização de recursos de redes em tempo de execução utilizando Gêmeo Digital

“…A camada digital, baseada nos dados gerados pelo espac ¸o real, constrói o gêmeo digital da camada física, com o nível de abstrac ¸ão requerido. Como ferramentas de emulac ¸ão criam ambientes isolados para realizar testes, avaliac ¸ões de desempenho e reprodutibilidade de experimentos [Farias et al 2019], tornam-se ótimas candidatas a fornecer ambientes virtuais com propriedades realísticas, em linha com o proposto pelos gêmeos digitais. Em tal caso, nossa proposta utiliza o emulador CNetLab para construir virtualmente a camada física, assumindo o papel de gêmeo digital.…”