An integrated management framework for virtual machines, switches, and their SDNs

The paradigm of software-defined networks (SDNs) and one of its enabling technologies, OpenFlow, have been widely welcomed by researchers and practitioners because of their flexibility in networking. Most cloud operators are attracted by the ability to “virtualize” networks at data centers, which is one of the most appealing out of various promising applications. How virtual networking is implemented in SDNs still remains to be solved in future research despite such enthusiasm to achieve virtualization. When researchers are involved in SDN investigations, they soon notice the tediousness of setting up the study environment, which consists of virtual machines (VMs), switches, and SDN controllers. Therefore, they need to spend a great deal of effort and time on non-essential parts of their studies. We present Kumoi in this paper, which is an integrated development framework for VMs, switches, and SDNs. Kumoi enables us to rapidly deploy VMs along with OpenFlow networking. Kumoi is not just an OpenFlow controller, but it also provides the ability to manage VMs in a single environment. We believe Kumoi could accelerate research on VMs and SDNs.