ovstack: A protocol stack of common data plane for overlay networks

Various overlay networks have been proposed and developed to increase flexibility on networks to address issues of the IP network. However, the existing overlay networks have two problems: 1) the topology of existing overlays is essentially full-mesh tunneling topology, 2) dependence of control plane and data plane. The full-mesh tunneling topology cannot enable the overlay routing for performance improvement of networks. The dependence of them causes complication of operations due to the isolation of overlay networks, and increases development costs. To improve the problems, we propose a new abstraction layer provides a common architecture for data planes of overlay networks that can deploy overlay routing. Based on the architecture, we design and implement a protocol stack, called ovstack. In this paper, we describe the architecture, design and implementation, then evaluate the performance of overlays including ovstack. The ovstack can contribute to construct more flexible overlay networks on the current networks easily.