A virtual switch architecture for hosting virtual networks on the Internet

The future Internet is envisioned to host a large number of virtual networks managed by different operators sharing the same physical infrastructure. In such a scenario, an operator may not even own physical resources as such, but lease virtual resources to have their own virtual networks. While control-plane virtualization with several routing instances becomes common in equipments, the data plane is generally shared relying on logical isolation or resource segmentation, lacking in efficient sharing with performance guarantees. This makes it necessary to look into layer 2, and virtualize the switching fabric to have control over the sharing of the most critical resources for packet switching. In this article, we come up with a flexible architectural design for virtualizing a switching fabric. This new architecture enables a multitude of choices to customize virtual switches as needed. Our simulations show the relative loss in performance brought by virtualization, and demonstrate how the offered flexibility can help in exploiting the resources in a new way, satisfying independent virtual switch requirements.