Performance of multi-tenant virtual networks in OpenStack-based cloud infrastructures

Future network architectures based on the emerging Network Function Virtualization and Software Defined Networking paradigms will significantly rely on cloud computing infrastructures, taking advantage of virtualization technologies. Performance of multi-tenant virtual networks will then be a key aspect to be considered when designing such cloud-based architectures. This issue is investigated in this paper with reference to the widely adopted OpenStack cloud infrastructure management platform. In particular, the paper provides an insight on how OpenStack deals with multi-tenant network virtualization and evaluates its performance in an experimental test-bed.