Light VN: A Light-Weight Testbed for Network and Security Experiments

Abstract

Test beds are essential in teaching and research on computer networks and security. However, designing and deploying a test bed is an expensive task. Various virtualization technologies make this task easier by enabling the creation and deletion of virtual machines (VMs) and their networks in less time on a single physical infrastructure. However, these VM based test beds are heavy-weight. In this paper, we propose a light-weight test bed architecture for performing network and security experiments. The test bed, termed as Light VN, supports multiple virtual networks set-up on a single physical network infrastructure, while maintaining the isolation between them. Based on network and OS-level virtualization and using open source tools, the test bed is cost-effective, scalable, and manageable. Finally, we evaluate the performance of our test bed set-up in the low-cost commodity server. We observe that it can simultaneously support a large number of virtual networks for different user groups.