We have finished upgrading all VINI nodes to the new Trellis kernel based on Linux 2.6.27. Please report any problems to the vini-dev list.

The original Internet In A Slice (IIAS) experiment on PlanetLab combined Click, XORP, User-Mode Linux, and OpenVPN to allow a "virtual ISP" to run inside a slice. We have updated IIAS to take advantage of Trellis, and integrated it into VINI's control framework so that IIAS configuration files are automatically generated inside a VINI slice.

The new and improved IIAS runs Quagga and OpenVPN on top of a Trellis virtual topology. Clients connect to an ingress node via OpenVPN, and route traffic into the IIAS. IIAS routes the traffic to the egress node designated for its network prefix, where the traffic exits the virtual network via NAT. Quagga runs the OSPF protocol to distribute routes.

VINI is a virtual network infrastructure that allows network researchers to evaluate their protocols and services in the wide area. VINI allows researchers to deploy and evaluate their ideas with real routing software, traffic loads, and network events. To provide researchers flexibility in designing their experiments, VINI supports simultaneous experiments with arbitrary network topologies on a shared physical infrastructure.

VINI currently consists of nodes at sites connected to the National LambdaRail, Internet2, and CESNET (Czech Republic). The maps below show our current VINI deployments:

National LambdaRail deployment

Internet2 deployment

CESNET deployment

Real-time status information for VINI nodes is provided by the CoMon project.