NorNet -- Building an Inter-Continental Internet Testbed Based on Open Source Software

NorNet -- Building an Inter-Continental Internet Testbed Based on Open Source Software - Thomas Dreibholz, Simula Research Laboratory

NorNet is an open, international Internet testbed platform for research on multi-homed systems. Multi-homed systems have the property of being connected to multiple Internet Service Providers (ISP) simultaneously, in order to still provide connectivity in case of ISP/network failures. Basis of NorNet is Linux, together with other Open Source software. At the moment, the testbed infrastructure spreads over 21 sites on 4 continents.

NorNet makes extensive use of advanced Linux features like virtualisation, file system features, routing rules, SCTP, MPTCP, and more. The global distribution creates further challenges. Goal of this talk is therefore to provide an overview of the problems that occurred when building the testbed, as well as solutions and lessons learned from solving these challenges. The idea is to present guidelines for utilising the advanced Linux features in own projects.

About Thomas Dreibholz
Thomas Dreibholz works as Senior Research Engineer at the Centre for Resilient Networks and Applications (CRNA) of the Simula Research Laboratory in Fornebu, Norway. He has published and presented more than 65 research contributions at international conferences and in journals. Furthermore, he has contributed multiple Working Group and Individual Submission Drafts to the IETF standardisation processes of RSerPool and SCTP. He is also co-author of multiple RFC documents published by the IETF.