Seamless integration of Cloud and Fog networks

This work provides a way to merge Cloud Computing infrastructures with traditional or legacy network deployments, leveraging the best in both worlds and enabling a logically centralized control for it. A solution is proposed to extend existing Cloud Computing software stacks so they are able to manage networks outside the Cloud Computing infrastructure, by extending the internal, virtualized network segments. This is useful in a variety of use cases such as incremental Legacy to Cloud network migration, hybrid virtual/traditional networking, centralized control of existing networks, bare metal provisioning, and even offloading of advanced services from typical home gateways into the operator. By using what is called External Drivers, any organization can develop their own driver to support new, specific networking equipment. Our concept solution is prototyped on top of OpenStack, including changes to the API, command line interface and other mechanisms. Test results indicate that there are low penalties on latency and throughput, and that provisioning times are reduced in comparison with similar maintenance operations on traditional computer networks.