Generalizing Virtual Network Topologies in OpenFlow-Based Networks

Network Virtualization (NV) is one of the most promising technique to enable innovation in today´s network. A recent approach toward NV has been proposed through FlowVisor, whose aim is to leverage on the specific features of an OpenFlow-controlled network to share the same hardware forwarding plane among multiple logical networks. However, FlowVisor lacks some features to enable a full implementation of a NV architecture: the virtual topologies that can be established are restricted to subsets of the physical topology and it has no way for two slices to share flowspace and simultaneously prevent them from interfering with each other´s traffic. In this work, an innovative system called ADVisor (ADvanced FlowVisor) which enhances FlowVisor while overcoming its major constraints is presented and a set of experimental results discussed to demonstrate its capability to provide an effective support toward a Network Virtualization architecture.