Towards P2P-routed IF overlay networks for grid virtual machines

This poster describes current work on the application of network virtualization and peer-to-peer routing techniques that overlay IP traffic and provide seamless connectivity to virtual machines in grid computing. Such IP-over-P2P virtual network - IPOP - is an overlay network that uses a virtual IP address space and allows nodes that belong to a grid to be seamlessly pooled together. The overlay network is self-configured as nodes join/leave the virtualized grid, and IP-level bi-directional connectivity among peers is provided. The decoupling provided by the overlay enables grid applications to leverage a wealth of IP-based software typically available in local-area environments. Such virtual networks, when combined to complementary resource virtualization techniques provided by O/S virtual machines [Xen, Rarham et al. (2003), VMware, Sugerman et al., (2001), User Mode Linux, Dike, J. (2000)], provide a scalable framework for dealing with a fundamental goal of grid computing: sharing resources in a secure and flexible manner by Figueiredo, Dinda and Fortes (2003)