“A Survey of Network Virtualization” is now available as a technical report

Update: This technical report has been superseded by an article that is to appear in the Computer Networks journal sometime in 2010 [LINK].

Finally, our survey on network virtualization is available as a technical report. If the abstract seems interesting (given below), you can download the report from here.

Due to the existence of multiple stakeholders with conflicting goals and policies, alterations to the existing Internet are now limited to simple incremental updates; deployment of any new, radically different technology is next to impossible. To fend off this ossification once and for all, network virtualization has been propounded as a diversifying attribute of the future inter-networking paradigm. By allowing multiple heterogeneous network architectures to cohabit on a shared physical substrate, network virtualization provides flexibility, promotes diversity, and promises security and increased manageability. In this paper, we present a network virtualization model with a set of quintessential design goals, survey the past and the state-of-the-art of network virtualization, and discuss the future challenges that must be addressed to realize a viable network virtualization model.

Since it is quite long (29 pages), here goes a brief summary. This article

1. puts network virtualization into a historical perspective,
2. presents a model network virtualization environment,
3. surveys existing projects that are directly or indirectly related to network virtualization,
4. summarizes key directions for future exploration.

We have tried our best it to make it informative and useful for the network virtualization research community. But any comment or critique from you will enrich it for sure. Don’t hesitate to grill or greet me. :-D

You should also check out my two presentations based on this survey: “An Introduction to Network Virtualization” and “Network Virtualization: Present and Future”.

On personal level, I have one chapter for my Master’s thesis. w00t !!!