Shrinking network development time-scales: flexible virtual networks

A new type of virtual network is presented which allows the virtual network owner to exert control over their network resources in a completely flexible fashion. These virtual networks use a technique known as `switchlets´, which result from partitioning the resources, both physical and logical, of a switch. Each partition is a switchlet. Switchlets from different physical switches may be interconnected together in a manner consistent with the physical connectivity of the real switches. Each set of interconnected switchlets can be controlled by its own system, called a `control architecture´. Such an arrangement results in a set of virtual networks, each with its own control architecture. These control architectures may be identical, that is they may be different instances of the same control architecture, or they may be radically different. This paper examines how switchlets can be used to provide functionality which is either impossible or problematic to provide using conventional approaches to network control