Extending Neutrality to Experimental Facilities

摘要

This paper focuses on the topic of Experimental Facilities, and introduces a novel approach which extends the neutrality concept that comes from Access Networks, to the facilities. The architecture of the solution and the implementation details are also described. The OpenFlow technology is used in order to obtain network slices and virtualize the physical infrastructure. The method proposed to define the slices is the MAC address prefix. The isolation of experiments is mandatory and it is done based on these prefixes by means of a modified version of FlowVisor. A new neutral slice is introduced in the solution. No previous configuration or requirement is needed to get access to this slice. Some basic services are also available at the neutral slice (i.e., captive portal, or an authentication and authorization infrastructure). Finally, the EHU OpenFlow Enabled Facility is presented as a proof of the viability of this approach.