Network testbed creation and validation

• US 9,600,386 B1
• Filed: 05/29/2014
• Issued: 03/21/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 05/31/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: National Technology & Engineering Solutions Of Sandia LLC (Honeywell International Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Sandia Corporation (Martin Marietta Corporation)
• Inventors: Thai, Tan Q., Urias, Vincent, Van Leeuwen, Brian P., Watts, Kristopher K., Sweeney, Andrew John
• Primary Examiner(s): Bonzo, Bryce
• Assistant Examiner(s): LIN, KATHERINE Y
• Application Number:
  US14/289,853
• Time in Patent Office: 1,027 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/263 Generation of test inputs, e.g. test vectors, patterns or sequences ; with adaptation of the tested hardware for testability with external testers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/4641 Virtual LANs, VLANs, e.g. virtual private networks [VPN] LAN interconnection over a bridge based backbone H04L12/462; encapsulation techniques H04L12/4633; routing of packets H04L45/00; packet switches H04L49/00; virtual private networks for security H04L63/0272
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46

Abstract

Embodiments of network testbed creation and validation processes are described herein. A “network testbed” is a replicated environment used to validate a target network or an aspect of its design. Embodiments describe a network testbed that comprises virtual testbed nodes executed via a plurality of physical infrastructure nodes. The virtual testbed nodes utilize these hardware resources as a network “fabric,” thereby enabling rapid configuration and reconfiguration of the virtual testbed nodes without requiring reconfiguration of the physical infrastructure nodes. Thus, in contrast to prior art solutions which require a tester manually build an emulated environment of physically connected network devices, embodiments receive or derive a target network description and build out a replica of this description using virtual testbed nodes executed via the physical infrastructure nodes. This process allows for the creation of very large (e.g., tens of thousands of network elements) and/or very topologically complex test networks.

Claims

1. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium including instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the processors to perform a method comprising:

receiving network description information for a target network, wherein the network description information comprises an abstract logical description of a design of the target network;

identifying network elements of the target network based, at least in part, on the received network description information;

accessing a memory including pre-stored testbed node settings data for configuring a plurality of network testbed nodes of a network testbed;

identifying the pre-stored testbed node settings data for each of the identified network elements of the target network;

generating configuration data for a plurality of virtual testbed nodes of a test network of the network testbed, wherein each of the virtual testbed nodes is to correspond to one of the identified network elements of the target network, wherein the configuration data for each of the virtual testbed nodes is based, at least in part, on the identified pre-stored testbed node settings data for the respective identified network element of the target network, and wherein the plurality of virtual testbed nodes are executed via a plurality of hardware resources of the test network to replicate the target network;

wherein generating configuration data for the plurality of virtual testbed nodes of the test network of the network testbed includes;

identifying a router and a first network element included in the target network, wherein the router is coupled to the first network element via a first link that has a bandwidth larger than any link of a hardware router included in the hardware resources of the test network;

configuring a first virtual testbed node of the plurality of virtual testbed nodes, to instantiate a virtual router corresponding to the identified router and a second virtual testbed node of the plurality of virtual testbed nodes corresponding to the first network element of the target network; and

allocating a same physical infrastructure node of the test network to execute the first and the second virtual testbed nodes, wherein the first and the second virtual testbed nodes are coupled via a second link using a hardware communication bus of the physical infrastructure node, wherein the bandwidth of the router is the same as the second link; and

comparing the network description information of the target network and the configuration data for the plurality of virtual testbed nodes to verify that executing the plurality of virtual testbed nodes replicates the design of the target network.

2. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein generating configuration data for the plurality of virtual testbed nodes of the test network comprises:

increasing a density of the virtual testbed nodes to be executed via each of the plurality of hardware resources of the test network based, at least in part, on the identified pre-stored testbed node settings data for each of the identified network elements of the target network, including;

identifying a set of virtual testbed nodes having at least some matching identified pre-stored testbed node settings data; and

allocating a same hardware resource to execute the identified set of virtual testbed nodes.

3. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 2, wherein the method further comprises:

determining to not allocate the same hardware resource to execute the identified set of virtual testbed nodes based, at least in part, on an expected memory usage or an expected execution speed indicated by the identified pre-stored testbed node settings data for the set of virtual testbed nodes.

4. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein generating configuration data for the plurality of virtual testbed nodes of the test network of the network testbed includes:

identifying a set of virtual testbed nodes having a common virtual image boot state from a base virtual image;

booting a first virtual testbed node of the set of identified virtual testbed nodes from the base virtual image to generate the common virtual boot state; and

booting the remaining set of identified virtual testbed nodes from the common virtual boot state.

5. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the network configuration data comprises runtime network traffic data captured from a traffic flow or packet flow module, or network exploratory data generated from at least one of a PING utility or a traceroute utility, and the method further comprises:

generating a network topology based on the runtime network traffic data or network exploratory data to identify the network elements of the target network, wherein the abstract logical description of the design of the target network includes the generated network topology.

6. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:

detecting a change to the test network comprising a removal or an insertion of one or more hardware resources of the test network; and

generating updated configuration data for the plurality of virtual testbed nodes of the test network of the network testbed in response to detecting the change to the test network.

7. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:

executing a test for the target network via the network testbed, wherein the test includes operations for simulating runtime changes for one or more network elements of the target network; and

dynamically re-configuring one of more of the virtual testbed nodes of the test network of the network testbed to simulate the runtime changes for the one or more network elements of the target network.

8. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the test network of the network testbed includes one or more non-virtualized physical nodes.

9. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:

capturing network traffic exchanged between the virtual testbed nodes of the test network of the network testbed during an execution of a test for the target network, wherein the network traffic includes data captured from a hardware communication bus interconnecting a plurality of hardware resources of the test network.

10. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the method further comprises:

during execution of the test for the target network, updating a destination of the captured network traffic from a first data collector node of the test network to a second data collector node.

11. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the network description information describes the target network as at least one of a large area network, a supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) centralized system, a cellular network infrastructure, or a cloud computing infrastructure.

12. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:

designating a set of virtual testbed nodes as network traffic generators, wherein the network traffic generators generate random data streams to create a noisy network environment to simulate real-world network conditions on the network testbed.

13. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein generating configuration data for the plurality of virtual testbed nodes of the test network includes:

specifying experimental operating characteristics of each of the virtual testbed nodes of the test network, and wherein the experimental operating characteristics includes at least one of a packet request response time, a processing latency, or a propagation delay.

14. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein generating configuration data for the plurality of virtual testbed nodes of the test network includes:

specifying testbed experiment parameters describing links between each of the virtual testbed nodes of the test network, wherein the testbed experiment parameters are configured to replicate real-world conditions of the target network, wherein the testbed experiment parameters are a function with random jitter, and wherein the testbed experiment parameters describe at least one of a percentage of dropped packets, an amount of burst traffic, a bandwidth limitation, or a latency.

15. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:

executing a test for the target network via the network testbed, wherein the test includes simulating random fault injections, and wherein the random fault injections are randomized in at least one of a timing, a location, or a type.