Abstract

Network equipment is difficult to configure correctly. To minimize configuration errors, network administrators typically build a smaller scale test lab replicating the production network and test out their configuration changes before rolling out the changes to production. Unfortunately, building a test lab is expensive and the test equipment is rarely utilized. In this paper, we present Remote Network Labs, which is aimed at leveraging the expensive network equipment more efficiently and reducing the cost of building a test lab. Similar to a server cloud such as Amazon EC2, a user could request network equipment remotely and connect them through a GUI or web services interface. The network equipment is geographically distributed, allowing us to reuse test equipment anywhere. Beyond saving costs, Remote Network Labs brings about many additional benefits, including the ability to fully automate network configuration testing.

Citations

463	T.: A blueprint for introducing disruptive technology into the Internet - Peterson, Anderson, et al. - 2003
446	An Integrated Experimental Environment for Distributed Systems and Networks - White, Lepreau, et al. - 2002
234	T.: Understanding BGP misconfigurations - Mahajan, Wetherall, et al.
124	A Clean Slate 4D Approach to Network Control and Management - Greenberg, Hjalmtysson, et al. - 2005
103	A quantitative study of firewall configuration errors - WOOL
50	On Static Reachability Analysis of IP Networks - Xie, Zhan, et al. - 2005
48	In VINI veritas: Realistic and controlled network experimentation - Bavier, Feamster, et al. - 2006
16	Evaluating Xen for router virtualization - Egi, Greenhalgh, et al. - 2007
13	The scaling hypothesis: Simplifying the prediction of network performance using scaled-down simulations - PSOUNIS, PAN, et al. - 2003
12	Shadow configuration as a network management primitive - Alimi, Wang, et al. - 2008
10	Bench-style network research in an Internet instance laboratory - Barford, Landweber - 2003
3	Logical Routers. http://www.juniper.net/ techpubs/software/junos/junos85/feature-guide-85/id-11139212. html - Juniper
3	Why internet services fail and what can be done about these - Oppenheimer, Ganapathi, et al. - 2003
2	logical routers,” http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/ios xr sw /iosxr r3.2/interfaces/command/reference /hr32lr.html - “Cisco
1	Design and evaluation of a high-peformance dynamically extensible router - Kuhns, DeHart, et al.