A Novel Framework for the Design and Development of Software Routers

Flexibility and programmability are key features of open networking platforms to effectively design, develop and assess new Future Internet architectures. This paper introduces a novel framework, based on open source software and PC hardware, that defines all the building blocks necessary to provide a full set of advanced networking capabilities (including QoS support and Traffic Engineering). The framework implementation also takes into account software reuse by facilitating maintenance and customization of the network protocol stack in software routers. The proposed open framework is also available as live distributions, which allow network designers to take advantage of its capabilities with a short learning curve