A Prototype Virtual Network Embedding System using OpenStack

Abstract

Network virtualization enables us to make efficient use of resources in a physical network by embedding multiple virtual networks in the physical network. In this paper, we develop a prototype of a virtual network embedding system. Our system consists of OpenStack, which is an open source cloud service platform, and shell scripts. Because OpenStack does not provide a quality of service control function, we realize bandwidth reservation for virtual links by making use of the ingress policing function of Open vSwitch, which is a virtual switch used in OpenStack. The shell scripts in our system automatically construct the required virtual network on the physical network using the OpenStack command-line interface, and they reserve bandwidth for virtual links using the Open vSwitch command. Experimental evaluation confirms that our system constructs the requested virtual network and appropriately allocates node and link resources to it.