Community-Lab introduction

- Also nodes in participating research centres.
- Linked together over the FEDERICA academic backbone.
- All its software and documentation is released under Free licenses, anyone
  can setup a CONFINE testbed like Community-Lab.

* Challenges and requirements
** Simple management vs. Distributed node ownership
- In contrast with e.g. indoors testbeds that belong wholly to the same
  entity.

** Features vs. Lightweight, low cost (free & open)
- Devices ranging from PCs to embedded boards.
- Need light system able to run on very different devices.





** Familiarity & flexibility vs. System stability
- Familiar Linux env with root access to researchers.
- Keep env isolation (nodes are shared by experiments).
- Keep node stability (to avoid in-place maintenance, some difficult to reach
  node locations).

# Frozen tower.



** Flexibility vs. Network stability
- Network experiments running on nodes in a production network.
- Allow interaction with CN at the lowest level possible but not disrupting or
  overusing it.

** Traffic collection vs. Privacy of CN users
- Experiments performing traffic collection and characterization.
- Avoid researchers spying on users' data.

** Link instability vs. Management robustness
- Deal with frequent network outages in the CN.

** Reachability vs. IP address provisioning
- Testbed spanning different CNs.
- IPv4 scarcity and incompatibility between CNs, lack of IPv6 support.

** Heterogeneity vs. Compatibility
- Lots of different devices (disparate connectivity and software openness).
- Lots of different link technologies (wireless, wired, fiber).

* Community-Lab testbed architecture
** Overall architecture
This architecture applies to all testbeds using the CONFINE software.
# Move over overlay diagram less overlay connections plus overlay network.
- A testbed consists of a set of nodes managed by the same server.
  - Server managed by testbed admins.
  - Network and node managed by node admins (usually owners and CN members).

- Also nodes in participating research centres.
- Linked together over the FEDERICA academic backbone.
- All its software and documentation is released under Free licenses, anyone
  can setup a CONFINE testbed like Community-Lab.

* Challenges and requirements
** Simple management vs. Distributed node ownership
- How to manage devices belonging to diverse owners.


** Features vs. Lightweight, low cost (free & open)
- Devices ranging from PCs to embedded boards.
- Need light system able to run on very different devices.

** Heterogeneity vs. Compatibility
- Some devices allow hacking while others don't.
- Diverse connectivity and link technologies (wireless, wired, fiber).

** Familiarity & flexibility vs. System stability
- Researchers prefer a familiar Linux env with root access.



- But experiments sharing the same node must be isolated.
# Frozen tower.
- Accessing node locations can be hard, so keep node stability to avoid
  in-place maintenance.

** Flexibility vs. Network stability
- Network experiments running on nodes in a production network.
- Allow interaction at the lowest possible layer of the CN while not
  disrupting or overusing it.

** Traffic collection vs. Privacy of CN users
- Experiments performing traffic collection and characterization.
- Avoid researchers spying on users' data.

** Link instability vs. Management robustness
- Management must deal with frequent network outages in the CN.

** Reachability vs. IP address provisioning
- Testbed spanning different CNs.
- IPv4 scarcity and incompatibility between CNs, lack of IPv6 support.





* Community-Lab testbed architecture
** Overall architecture
This architecture applies to all testbeds using the CONFINE software.
# Move over overlay diagram less overlay connections plus overlay network.
- A testbed consists of a set of nodes managed by the same server.
  - Server managed by testbed admins.
  - Network and node managed by node admins (usually owners and CN members).