The following is a screen cast of a presentation given by Patsy at FutureNet May 2010 on Code-N-Play: Deployable Network Stacks.
This presentation will start by providing an insight of the EU ICT project 4WARD, a three year pan-European large scale research project for Future Internet Architectures.
The rest of the presentation focuses on one of the main results of 4WARD, which is a component-based virtual network that realises parts of the RINA vision as laid out by John Day (BostonU).
Patsy demonstrates the software platform and some of its core features, which support the design and development of networking protocols and applications. The last part of the presentation will demonstrate how a complete virtual network can be developed, deployed and monitored. The platform we present and demonstrate uses Spring DM (Eclipse Virgo) for deployment and Java development, JNode for legacy hw/sw (device/protocol) integration and the OSGi component framework.

Click here to watch the presentation in WideScreen mode (evil popup window).
What you will see in the presentation is that CBA is

• Java based development, deployment and execution
• No C/C++, No OS Kernel (User space), No pain
• Removal of barrier to entry
• Cross platform – OS independent.
• Off the shelf (free/community tools / platform)
• Applying Industry practises / tooling
• Design–Develop–Deploy
• Its Software – Nothing is impossible!
• Network Protocol(s) / Stack implementation / testing
• Network & Node configuration & deployment
• Complete Programmatic Control – Repeat Scenarios

From an application point of view, the CBA prototype enables real-time management of large-scale networks. In this presentation a major scenario involving an emergency scenario is shown. The scenario is characterised by dynamicity and the need for timely adaptation and this demo shows where selected functions can be deployed in the future Internet.
For example, the network can be thought of in conditions after a natural disaster, where emergency teams need to provide relief, but the network infrastructure is heavily damaged. Multiple network domains can be bootstrapped, and a SLA negotiation is undertaken to transit the medical team node traffic between two domains.
The prototype bootstraps 4 distinct domains: (i) Fixed Operator (FO) Network, (ii) Emergency Medical Teams (EMT) Network, (iii) Ad Hoc Disaster Recovery (AHDR) Network and (iv) Medical Team Node 1.


The challenges in this scenario is related to the establishment and maintenance of a good Quality of Service to guarantee a reliable connection to the emergency team.
Traditionally the Internet would be used as instrument for reliable connection in emergency conditions, but legacy phone lines would be reserved. The major limitation is that instruments for dynamic reconfiguration are not put in place in the network. The enhanced architecture presented here increases the performances of the network.
The knowledge and governance stratum are used to enforce the necessary control loops on various area of the network. Monitoring algorithms implemented in the INM entities assure the necessary scalability to control in real-time a large scale network like the one depicted in the scenario. The SLA manager is in charge of the negotiation between different domains. The integration of the distributed management capabilities within the CBA architecture guarantees reliability in the emergency.
For the SLA negotiation, the “SLA Manager” performs inter-domain negotiation (showing interoperability) thus creating a SLA between the EMT network and the FO network on behalf of medical team 1 client node. The “INM Monitoring” module of the prototype is used to monitor SLA compliance.
Watch a video of the demo

Click here to watch the presentation in WideScreen mode (evil popup window).
Conclusion
The real-time adaptation in emergency prototype has shown the self-organising and self-deployment of a network domain through the holistic and systematic approach of the strata architecture.
The prototype also shows how CBA provides a service orientated architecture based network stack, which allows for more flexible and modular networking functionality. This approach provides the following advantages to network developers (protocol or functions):
a) Java environment which is not tied to any operating system,
b) shortened revise/test cycle (no kernel reboots),
c) easier debugging – full access to the latest java application toolsets,
d) improved stability – user level development, unstable protocol components only affects the application not the overall system.
Finally interoperability via SLA negotiation at a domain level is highlighted in the prototype with the SLA switched networking enabled via Strata encapsulation of the differing network architectures at a domain level.