A Node Plug-In Architecture for Evolving Network Virtualization Nodes

"Virtualization nodes" (VNodes) for programmable network-virtualization platforms enable mutually independent evolution of computational node-component called programmer and networking node-component called redirector; however, no method for this evolution has been available. Accordingly, a method for evolving programmer and redirector and developing new types of virtualized networking and/or computational functions in two steps is proposed. The first step is to develop a new function without updating the original VNode, which continues services to existing slices, using a proposed plug-in architecture. This architecture defines predefined interfaces called open VNode plug-in interfaces (OVPIs), which connect a data and a control plug-ins to a VNode. The second step is to merge the completed plug-ins into the original programmer or redirector. A prototype implementation of the above plug-in architecture was developed, tested, and evaluated. The prototype extends the redirector by adding new types of virtual links and new types of network accommodation. Estimated throughputs of a VLAN-based network accommodation and a VLAN-based virtual link using network processors are close to a wire rate of 10 Gbps.