GNS3 Limitations when Emulating Connectivity and Management for Backbone Networks: A Case Study of CANARIE

Abstract

Advanced networks born after the development of the commercial Internet, those networks are the infrastructure of the national research and education networks around the world, acting as Internet version 2 for each country. The backbone internet infrastructure is so expensive that just a few internet service providers in a country can invest and deliver these networks. Therefore, when academics wish to explore management in these backbone internet networks a simulator or emulator must be used and GNS3 is often chosen because it supports backbone routers and Gbps links. Advanced networks have evolved and updating the backbone infrastructure until Gbps and using backbone routers. In this work a connectivity and management emulator for the backbone topology of different advanced networks in the globe is explored and, its capabilities and limitations are shown, but when approaching the real backbone infrastructure, CANARIE is chosen.