X-Bone
Abstract
The X-Bone is a system for the rapid, automated deployment and management of overlay networks. It consists of a web interface, a coordinating back-end Overlay Manager, and per-node Resource Daemons that configure interfaces, add routes, set security keys, and arbitrate access. The X-Bone deploys IP overlay networks - virtual topologies of encapsulation tunnels - used for network experiments or for the incremental deployment of new network services. The project developed and implemented this distributed system for deploying and managing overlays as well as the architectural extension of the Internet on which it is based. The system was made available as a FreeBSD port and Linux RPM. The project discovered issues with current operating systems and protocols, which were patched and/or communicated to the relevant standards groups. The project indicated opportunities to integrate the Internet architecture extensions in broader ways, to more completely support virtual networks and concurrent distributed overlays; among these are ways to use multi-layer overlays for fault tolerance, and challenges to the interfaces used to configure and access network configuration parameters. The project demonstrated the utility of automated overlay deployment and the impact of general extensions to virtualize the Internet architecture.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Aug 01, 2003
- Accession Number
- ADA418494
Entities
People
- Joseph D. Touch
Organizations
- University of Southern California