Emulated and software defined networking convergence

Emulab is a network testbed that provides network topologies defined by the user, in a controllable, predictable, and repeatable environment. It includes PC nodes with full access to the experimenter, running an operating system of his/her choice. Emulab works as a programmable patch panel to create an arbitrary topology by dynamically configuring network switches. The current approach that provides the switches programmability has strict requirements. These restrictions limit the models of switches to build an Emulab facility and demand a significant amount of work in the process of adding new switch models. This paper proposes the implementation of OpenFlow as an interface to configure the Emulab switches; this provides a new approach to add new switch models and improves the list of supported switches in Emulab with OpenFlow-compliant models.