Towards a Flexible Network Operating System Testbed for the Computing Continuum

In recent years, emerging computing paradigms have paved the way for the development of the Computing Continuum, a concept that enables applications to efficiently allocate geo-distributed resources across the network. Despite its potential, fully realizing the Computing Continuum remains a challenge due to the lack of suitable research infrastructures that support experimentation at scale. To address this gap, we propose a conceptual testbed designed to enhance the replicability, scalability, and robustness of Computing Continuum and network operating system experiments. Our testbed provides a high degree of flexibility by allowing experimenters to modify the operating systems of network equipment and dynamically reconfigure network topologies. To illustrate its versatility, we define three distinct usage scenarios, ranging from multi-operator environments to internal network architectures within telecommunication providers, all of which can be deployed on the proposed network topology. Additionally, this article explores solutions for virtual topology management, operating system deployment, and service orchestration.