Multidomain Network Hypervisor for Abstraction and Control of OpenFlow-Enabled Multitenant Multitechnology Transport Networks

A virtualization architecture is presented for deploying multitenant virtual networks on top of multitechnology optical networks. A multidomain network hypervisor (MNH) and a multidomain SDN orchestrator (MSO) are introduced with this purpose. The MNH provides an abstract view of each virtual network and gives control of it to each independent customer SDN controller. The MNH is able to provide virtual networks across heterogeneous control domains (i.e., generalized multiprotocol label switching and OpenFlow) and transport technologies (i.e., optical packet switching and elastic optical networks). The MSO is responsible for providing the necessary end-to-end connectivity. We have designed, implemented, and experimentally evaluated the MNH and MSO in an international testbed across Spain, UK, Germany, and Japan.Grant No: TEC2012-38119 (FARO)