As the Internet grows and evolves, increasingly diverse network applications will be deployed to accommodate business and social needs. These increasingly diverse network applications undoubtedly will exacerbate the demand for a spectrum of network services. Often, network applications call for strikingly divergent performance requirements in terms of security, predictability, and throughput. Although physically separate networks could be constructed to meet these varied performance constraints, in many cases, a common physical substrate is needed to minimize equipment investment, operating cost, and power consumption. Several virtual network implementations which share network nodes and links have recently been introduced. To allow for the rapid allocation of system resources and a flexible programming environment, these systems are deployed in general-purpose processors and the physical resources required by each virtual network are dynamically allocated by an operating system. Although this approach has been shown to be feasible, the serial nature of general-purpose processors limits virtual network performance. In this project, a new hardware-based approach to virtual network construction that provides scalability and programmability will be developed. The planned computing platform uses a reconfigurable field-programmable gate array (FPGA) to implement one or more individual unique routers that have been customized to specific virtual network needs. As the number of virtual networks and their characteristics change, the hardware in the FPGA can be reconfigured to support the updated requirements. The management of the deployed virtual routers is performed by a resource manager which is executed on an accompanying microprocessor. To evaluate the approach, a series of software tools and hardware modules will be created.
Intellectual merit: This project represents an aggressive effort to develop an integrated environment for the creation and deployment of reconfigurable virtual networks. This coordinated effort takes advantage of advances in FPGA systems, FPGA resource management, and network router development to allow for the creation of scalable, high performance virtual networks. A virtual network architectural layer will be developed to address dynamically changing network requirements. Architectural resources will be managed by a new resource allocation algorithm that will allow for the effective use of the available FPGA area under virtual network performance constraints. This algorithm will run periodically to allow for dynamic rebalancing of FPGA resources. All hardware and software components of the system will be designed to allow for effective system use by users that are unfamiliar with FPGA design. The real-time performance of the system will be evaluated in the PIs? networking laboratory at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst under realistic workloads.
Broader impact: The potential for broader impact from this work is substantial due to the ubiquity of networking and the scalability of the solution. The researchers plan to develop two specific programs to broaden the impact of the work including: 1) a new undergraduate curriculum in virtual networking, focused on scalable real-world systems, and 2) application of the new technologies in the NSF-sponsored Engineering Research Center for Collaborative and Adaptive Sensing of the Atmosphere (CASA) which already has an elaborate infrastructure in place to impact meteorologists, emergency managers, and under-represented groups at the University of Puerto Rico.
