The Rational for Developing Larger-scale 1000+ Machine Emulation-Based Research Test Beds

This position paper outlines the need and rational for developing large-scale emulation facilities structured to allow the scientific method tenets to be met on a per experiment basis. The work specifically focuses on the need to develop emulation-based test beds on the 1000+ machine scale, as expressed within the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Program Agency´s (DARPA) BAA-08-43 Broad Agency Announcement of May 2008 for a National Cyber Range, the University of Victoria´s Fall 2008 application to the Canadian Foundation for Innovation for a Canadian at-scale Emulation Laboratory (CASElab), and the recent HP-Intel-Yahoo global cloud computing test bed initiative. The work places these proposed large-scale facilities both within the general context of the standard research tools (i.e., analytical analysis, simulation studies, ad hoc testing, and smaller-scale emulation), as their placement against other available test beds, most notably Emulab, DETERlab, and PlanetLab.