From the merge of Network Virtualization and Programmable Network concepts it became possible to provide isolated virtual networks with customizable behaviors. Such prospective environment was named Programmable Virtual Networks (PVN). Managing traditional computer networks is challenging, but managing virtualized and programmable networks might turn such task even more complex. Given this new reality, network administrators are no longer just looking at network devices. They are looking at a system made of virtual devices and applications that define each virtual network behavior. This requires not just new management approaches and tools, over and above that, requires new thinking.

With this in mind, it was propose the Programmable Virtual Network management platform (ProViNet). It is targeted to support open PVN environments and allow service providers to consume resources from different infrastructure providers. Moreover, it introduces a novel network programming strategy, more comprehensive and user friendly.

The architecture shown in the figure above illustrates conceptual components of ProViNet platform. More precisely, it presents two major components ProViNet Core and Scalable Control Plane (SCP). There are three modules inside the ProViNet Core, which concentrate all business logic, access policy and configurations of the platform. SCP module provides the technology and resources necessary to host a scalable, robust, and high available virtualized environment, in which controllers can be quickly created, deleted, and migrated in response to the varying demand of end-users. From the top, end-users interact with ProViNet through End User Interfaces module. At the bottom, enabled by PVN Control module, ProViNet communicates with one or more Virtual Infrastructure Providers (VIP) in order to manage programmable virtual network infrastructures.

This project is an outcome of a Master's Thesis developed in Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS). More information and details about ProViNet and related concepts can be found in the following:

Prototype Screencast: 

YouTube: “ProViNet – SDN Management Platform”

Source Code: 

http://github.com/computer-networks-ufrgs/provinet

Publications:

Paim de Jesus, W.; Araujo Wickboldt, J.; Zambenedetti Granville, L., "ProViNet -- An Open Platform for Programmable Virtual Network Management," Computer Software and Applications Conference (COMPSAC), 2013 IEEE 37th Annual, pp.329,338, Kyoto - Japan,22-26 July 2013

Wanderson Paim de Jesus, Ricardo Luis dos Santos, Oscar Mauricio Caicedo Rendon, Lisandro Zambenedetti Granville, "ProViNet: Uma Plataforma para Gerenciamento de Redes Virtuais Programáveis," in Proceedings of the XXXI Brazilian Symposium on Computer Networks and Distributed Systems (SBRC 2013), 6-10 May 2013, Brasília, Brazil