FEDCON: An embeddable Framework for Managing MOC Functions and Interfaces in Federated Software Networks

Software Networks (SN), combining network virtualization, system virtualization, NFV, and SDN, are highly suitable for the establishment of federated loose infrastructures, e.g., due to their flexibility, expandability, and concealment of geographical segregation of IT resources. Current management platforms for suchlike SNs, however, almost entirely omit network federation with its organizational aspects and cannot handle network heterogeneity. In this paper, in order to contribute to close this gap, we do not strive for a stand-alone solution, but present the FEDerated CONtrol (FEDCON) framework, which is designed to be embeddable into existing platforms. It facilitates access to a federated SN's functionality by providing the modeling and secure invocation of functions and interfaces of network components, like SDN-controllers or hypervisors. FEDCON considers federation-specific organisational aspects like geographically distributed data centers, administrative domains, and use-case-specific adaptable access controls. FEDCON is implemented in Lua, exploiting its focus on embeddability into existing software.