Network Emulation as a Service (NEaaS): Towards a Cloud-Based Network Emulation Platform

Junyu Lai; Jiaqi Tian; Dingde Jiang; Jiaming Sun; Ke Zhang

Simulation Tools and Techniques. 11th International Conference, SIMUtools 2019, Chengdu, China, July 8–10, 2019, Proceedings

Research Article

Network Emulation as a Service (NEaaS): Towards a Cloud-Based Network Emulation Platform

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@INPROCEEDINGS{10.1007/978-3-030-32216-8_49,
    author={Junyu Lai and Jiaqi Tian and Dingde Jiang and Jiaming Sun and Ke Zhang},
    title={Network Emulation as a Service (NEaaS): Towards a Cloud-Based Network Emulation Platform},
    proceedings={Simulation Tools and Techniques. 11th International Conference, SIMUtools 2019, Chengdu, China, July 8--10, 2019, Proceedings},
    proceedings_a={SIMUTOOLS},
    year={2019},
    month={10},
    keywords={Network emulation Cloud computing NFV (network functional virtualization) SDN (software-defined networking) Flow steering},
    doi={10.1007/978-3-030-32216-8_49}
}

Junyu Lai
Jiaqi Tian
Dingde Jiang
Jiaming Sun
Ke Zhang
Year: 2019
Network Emulation as a Service (NEaaS): Towards a Cloud-Based Network Emulation Platform
SIMUTOOLS
Springer
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-32216-8_49

Junyu Lai^,*, Jiaqi Tian¹^,*, Dingde Jiang¹^,*, Jiaming Sun¹^,*, Ke Zhang¹^,*

1: University of Electronic Science and Technologies of China

*Contact email: laijy@uestc.edu.cn, tianjq@uestc.edu.cn, jiangdd@uestc.edu.cn, sunjm@uestc.edu.cn, zhangk@uestc.edu.cn

Abstract

Network emulation is an essential method to test network architecture, protocol and application software during a network’s entire life-cycle. Compared with simulation and test-bed methods, network emulation possesses the advantages of accuracy and cost-efficiency. However, legacy network emulators are typically restricted in scalability, agility, and extensibility, which builds barriers to prevent them from being widely used. In this paper, we introduce the currently prevalent cloud computing and related technologies including resource virtualization, NFV (network functional virtualization), SDN (software-defined networking), traffic control and flow steering to the network emulation domain. We design and implement an innovative cloud-based network emulation platform, aiming at providing users Network Emulation as a Service (NEaaS), which can be conveniently deployed on both public and private clouds. We carried out performance evaluation and discussion on this platform. It turns out, the platform can significantly outperform most legacy network emulators regarding to the scalability, agility, and extensibility, with much lower emulation costs.

Keywords: Network emulation Cloud computing NFV (network functional virtualization) SDN (software-defined networking) Flow steering

Published: 2019-10-24
Appears in: SpringerLink

: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-32216-8_49