The Flexlab Approach to Realistic Evaluation of Networked Systems

Networked systems are often evaluated on overlay testbeds such as PlanetLab and emulation testbeds such as Emulab. Emulation testbeds give users great control over the host and network environments and offer easy reproducibility, but only artificial network conditions. Overlay testbeds provide real network conditions, but are not repeatable environments and provide less control over the experiment. We describe the motivation, design, and implementation of Flexlab, a new testbed with the strengths of both overlay and emulation testbeds. It enhances an emulation testbed by providing the ability to integrate a wide variety of network models, including those obtained from an overlay network. We present three models that demonstrate its usefulness, including “application-centric Internet modeling” that we specifically developed for Flexlab. Its key idea is to run the application within the emulation testbed and use its offered load to measure the overlay network. These measurements a...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2007
• Where: NSDI
• Authors: Robert Ricci, Jonathon Duerig, Pramod Sanaga, Daniel Gebhardt, Mike Hibler, Kevin Atkinson, Junxing Zhang, Sneha Kumar Kasera, Jay Lepreau
• Keywords: Computer Networks, Emulation Testbed, Network Conditions, NSDI 2007, Overlay Testbeds