PlanetLab Architecture

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Key Architectural Ideas

Distributed virtualization
slice = set of virtual machines
Unbundled management
infrastructure services run in their own slice
Chain of responsibility
account for behavior of third-party software
manage trust relationships

Principals

.Node Owners
host one or more nodes (retain ultimate control)
selects an MA and approves of one or more SAs
.Service Providers (Developers)
implements and deploys network services
responsible for the service’s behavior
.Management Authority (MA)
installs an maintains software on nodes
creates VMs and monitors their behavior
.Slice Authority (SA)
registers service providers
creates slices and binds them to responsible provider

PlanetFlow
.Logs every outbound IP flow on every node
accesses ulogd via Proper
retrieves packet headers, timestamps, context ids (batched)
used to audit traffic
.Aggregated and archived at PLC

Policy Proposals

Suspend a site’s slices while a its nodes are down
Resource allocation to
brokerage services
long-running services
Encourage measurement experiments via ScriptRoute
lower scheduling latency for select slices
Distinguish PL versus non-PL traffic
remove per-node burst limits
replace with sustained rate caps
limit slices to 5GB/day to non-PL destinations (with exceptions)