Tag Archives: Network Virtualization

Recent News

Extended version of ViNEYard has been accepted in IEEE/ACM ToN

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An extended, updated, and emended version of our ViNEYard paper in INFOCOM’09 has been accepted for publication in IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking after yearlong multiple rounds of reviews. Since there is normally a long queue for actually getting an accepted ToN paper printed, its hard to tell when ours will officially be out there. I’d like to thank our anonymous reviewers who took great amount of care to find existing issues in the original submission and suggested directions for improvements. Thanks also to Cedric Westphal for moderating the process in a fast and efficient manner. Lastly, without Prof. Boutaba’s insistence on getting it done (even after both Muntasir and I had left Waterloo,) this paper would never have come to be.

Apart from many small tweaks and fixes (some reported by researchers who read the INFOCOM version; thank you), the following are include some of the notable changes:

  • Introduced WiNE, a generalized window-based VN embedding mechanism for equipping any existing online VN embedding algorithm with lookahead capabilities.
  • Compared the ViNEYard algorithms with their counterparts under the influence of WiNE ;)
  • Included time-complexity expressions from D-ViNE and R-ViNE.
  • Added extended evaluation results on the comparative run times of the proposed algorithms.
  • Updated/added references to related work.
  • Provided approximation ratio for D-ViNE under a restricted model.
  • …
Recent News

PolyViNE has been accepted at VISA’2010

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Our paper, “PolyViNE: Policy-based Virtual Network Embedding Across Multiple Domains” is set to appear in VISA’2010 workshop (with SIGCOMM’2010) in New Delhi. I worked on it during my last few months in Waterloo (circa Winter/Spring 2009), and it has been lying around ever since because everyone had been busy. Finally, its going to wake up and smell a workshop.

Intra-domain virtual network embedding (ViNE) is a well studied problem in the network virtualization literature. For most practical purposes, however, virtual networks (VNs) must be provisioned across heterogeneous administrative domains managed by multiple infrastructure providers (InPs).

In this paper we present PolyViNE, a policy-based inter-domain VN embedding framework that embeds end-to-end VNs in a decentralized manner. PolyViNE introduces a distributed protocol that coordinates the VN embedding process across participating InPs and ensures competitive prices for service providers (SPs), i.e., VN owners. We also present a location aware VN request forwarding mechanism — based on a hierarchical addressing scheme (COST) and a location awareness protocol (LAP) — to allow faster embedding and outline scalability and performance characteristics of PolyViNE through quantitative and qualitative evaluations.

As always, the paper can be found in my publications page. once I upload it (not yet).

Recent News

Feature Article on Network Virtualization in IEEE ComMag

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“Network Virtualization: State of the Art and Research Challenges” has been featured in the IEEE Communications Magazine’s July 2009 issue in its Network and Service Management Series. This one is a quick overview of a lot of things related to network virtualization: its past, present, and possible future. The main objective is to let the huge readership of the magazine (which includes all the members of IEEE ComSoc + others) know about the ongoing saga of network virtualization and next generation Internet.

Please have a look at the abstract below; a copy of the (sort of) final draft can be found in my publications page.

Recently network virtualization has been pushed forward by its proponents as a long-term solution to the gradual ossification problem faced by the existing Internet and proposed to be an integral part of the next-generation 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. However, many technical issues stand in the way of its successful realization. This article investigates the past and the state of the art in network virtualization along with the future challenges that must be addressed to realize a viable network virtualization environment.

Acceptance rate for this issue was 14.3% (four out of 28 submissions).

Recent News

Presenting at INFOCOM’2009 in Brazil

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Finally I am getting the opportunity to present my work in front of my peers, arguably in the biggest networking conference in size and impact. The slides are ready, the stage is set, and I am hoping I will be able to deliver. Since this is my first presentation in an international conference, I am really excited – may be a bit too much :D I am also looking forward to meeting lots of researchers from all around the world and networking with them for possible collaborations in the future. The fact that I am crossing the equator for the first time, is giving more fuel to my excitement.

Update (April 19): We (Andy and I) are in the confernce site. I am loving Rio :D Hopefully the presentation will go alright on Wednesday.

Update (April 22): Finished presenting my paper :)

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Signed, sealed, delivered I’m done (with Master’s)

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After 633 days, reading few hundred papers, writing a few, watching 100+ movies, reading 30+ fictions, eating lots of food, and doing many other things, my Master’s is over :D . I successfully presented/defended my thesis on 21st Jan 2009, and my thesis committee have approved it without any changes (there were 3 typos :( ). To the best of my knowledge this is the first thesis on network virtualization after the recent reincarnation. Officially the thesis is available in UWSpace. You can also get it here along with the presentation slides. I would like to thank my two readers, Prof. Ashraf Aboulnaga and Prof. Johnny Wong, and specially my supervisor Prof. Raouf Boutaba, who had been a pillar a support throughout the process.

The thesis focuses on identity management and resource allocation through virtual network embedding in the network virtualization environment. Since both the projects have already been accepted in IM and INFOCOM respectively, it was comparatively easier to put together the thesis. An overview of the thesis is given below:

Due to the existence of multiple stakeholders with conflicting goals and policies, alterations to the existing Internet architecture are now limited to simple incremental updates; deployment of any new, radically different technology is next to impossible. To fend off this ossification, network virtualization has been propounded as a diversifying attribute of the future inter-networking paradigm. In this talk, we provide an overview of the network virtualization environment (NVE) and address two basic problems in this emerging field of networking research.

The identity management problem is primarily concerned with ensuring interoperability across heterogeneous identifier spaces for locating and identifying end hosts in different virtual networks. We describe the architectural and the functional components of a novel identity management framework (iMark) that enables end-to-end connectivity across heterogeneous virtual networks in the NVE without revoking their autonomy.

The virtual network embedding problem deals with the mapping of virtual nodes and links onto physical network resources. We argue that the separation of the node mapping and the link mapping phases in the existing algorithms considerably reduces the solution space and degrades embedding quality. We propose coordinated node and link mapping to devise two algorithms (D-ViNE and R-ViNE) for the online version of the problem under realistic assumptions and compare their performance with the existing heuristics.

Btw, you should listen to this wonderful song by Stevie Wonder.

Recent News

ViNE-Yard has been accepted at INFOCOM’2009

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Just in. Our paper “Virtual Network Embedding with Coordinated Node and Link Mapping”, which presents D-ViNE and R-ViNE algorithms,  has been accepted at INFOCOM’2009. Apparently, I have overtaken myself and will be presenting my first paper in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil next April. :D

Here goes the abstract:

Recently network virtualization has been proposed as a promising way to overcome the current ossification of the Internet by allowing multiple heterogeneous virtual networks (VNs) to coexist on a shared infrastructure. A major challenge in this respect is the VN embedding problem that deals with efficient mapping of virtual nodes and virtual links onto the substrate network resources. Since this problem is known to be NP-hard, previous research has focused on designing heuristic-based algorithms which have clear separation between the node and link mapping phases.

This paper proposes VN embedding algorithms with better coordination between the two phases. We formulate the VN embedding problem as a mixed integer program through substrate network augmentation. We then relax the integer constraints to obtain a linear program, and devise two VN embedding algorithms D-ViNE and R-ViNE using deterministic and randomized rounding techniques, respectively. Simulation experiments show that the proposed algorithms increase the acceptance ratio and the revenue while decreasing the cost incurred by the substrate network in the long run.

You can access a copy of the paper in the publications page along with my other works.

Some stats now: This year Infocom received 1435 papers (after post-submission withdrawals) of which 282 papers were accepted after a thorough review process. Hence the acceptance ratio would be 19.65%.

List of papers accepted into the main conference is available here.

Recent News

iMark has been accepted at IM’2009

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Our paper “iMark: An Identity Management Framework for Network Virtualization Environment” has been accepted at IM’2009. Hopefully, I will be presenting my first paper at a major conference in New York next June :-D . The abstract of the paper is given below:

In recent years, network virtualization has been propounded as an open and flexible future internetworking paradigm that allows multiple virtual networks (VNs) to coexist on a shared physical substrate. Each VN in a network virtualization environment (NVE) is free to implement its own naming, addressing, routing, and transport mechanisms. While such flexibility allows fast and easy deployment of diversified applications and services, ensuring end-to-end communication and universal connectivity poses a daunting challenge.

This paper advocates that effective and efficient management of heterogeneous identifier spaces is the key to solving the problem of end-to-end connectivity in an NVE. We propose iMark, an identity management framework based on a global identity space, which enables end hosts to communicate with each other within and outside of their own networks through a set of controllers, adapters, and well-placed mappings without sacrificing the autonomy of the concerned VNs. We describe the procedures that manipulate these mappings between different identifier spaces and provide performance evaluation of the proposed framework.

If you are interested, head to my publications page to get the full paper.

The acceptance rate of IM’2009 is approximately 32%.

Recent News

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

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Update: This technical report has been superseded by an updated version published in the Computer Networks journal [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 !!!

Recent News

eNVy formed !!!

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Last Tuesday our on-going investigation on network virtualization has taken a formal shape after the formation of the eNVy project. For anyone interested, eNVy stands for NV or network virtualization, all credits to Fida. (I think at some point I thought about eNVious, but that’s just me being myself)

Members of eNVy will be working on different aspects of network virtualization, ranging from theoretical foundation to real-life implementation.

Right now eNVy is headed by Prof. Raouf Boutaba, and consists of five members: Constantine, Fida, Muntasir, Nabeel, and I. Hopefully we will be having regular project meetings starting next week.

I will be posting updates in this blog regularly.