A flexible Quagga-based virtual network with FIB aggregation

The rapid increase in routers forwarding table size is raising serious concerns for ISPs. In particular, it exhausts the routers forwarding hardware capacity, leading to more frequent upgrades and higher cost. In this article, we present the development of a virtual network framework based on open source software that demonstrates how solutions to this impending problem can be implemented and studied. The system is capable of emulating an operational network environment with intradomain and inter-domain routing protocols as well as real-world Internet routing traffic. By adding performance monitoring and FIB aggregation capabilities to this system, we are able to evaluate the performance of FIB aggregation algorithms in a realistic network environment.