NePA TesT: Community Network Emulator

    Mininet: A Simple Virtual Testbed for OpenFlow

                        aka

How to Squeeze a 1024-node OpenFlow Network onto your Laptop

(Extremely Experimental Development Version 0.1, December 2009)

---

Mininet creates simple OpenFlow test networks by using process-based

virtualization and network namespaces.

Simulated hosts (as well as switches and controllers with the user

datapath) are created as processes in separate network namespaces. This

allows a complete OpenFlow network to be simulated on top of a single

Linux kernel.

Mininet provides a set of Python classes and functions which enable

creation of OpenFlow networks of varying sizes and topologies.

In order to run Mininet, you must have:

* A Linux 2.6.26 or greater kernel compiled with network namespace support

  enabled. (debian-testing seems to have such a kernel, but it doesn't

  work for compiling nox, unfortunately.)

* The OpenFlow reference implementation (either the user or kernel

  datapath may be used, and the tun or ofdatapath kernel modules must be

  loaded, respectively)

* Python, bash, ping, iperf, etc.

* Root privileges (required for network device access)

* The netns program (included as netns.c), or an equivalent program

  of the same name, installed in an appropriate path location

* mininet.py installed in an appropriate Python path location

Currently mininet includes:

- A simple node infrastructure (Host, Switch, Controller classes) for

  creating virtual OpenFlow networks

- A simple network infrastructure (class Network and its descendants

  TreeNet, GridNet and LinearNet) for creating scalable topologies and

  running experiments (e.g. TreeNet(2,3).run(pingTest) )

- Some simple tests which can be run using someNetwork.run( test )

- A simple command-line interface which may be invoked on a network using

  .run( Cli ). It provides useful diagnostic commands, as well as the

  ability to send a command to a node. For example,

  mininet> h11 ifconfig -a

  tells host h11 to run the command 'ifconfig -a'

- A 'cleanup' script to get rid of junk (interfaces, processes, files in

  /tmp, etc.) which might be left around by mininet. Try this if things

  stop working!

- Examples (in examples/ directory) to help you get started.

Batteries are not included (yet!) 

However, some preliminary installation notes are included in the INSTALL

file. Good luck!

---

Bob Lantz

rlantz@cs.stanford.edu