Deploying Virtual MAC Protocols Over a Shared Access Infrastructure Using MAClets

Abstract

Network virtualization has been extensively researched in the last years as a key enabler for improving the network performance. However, virtualization in wireless networks pose some unique challenges: first, the usual over-provisioning approach for providing isolation between multiple virtual entities is not viable; second, the partitioning criteria are often ambiguous, since the actual resources perceived by each entity depend on many external (and time-varying) factors. In this demo, we show an effective virtualization solution for wireless local area networks, solving the problem of isolation and flexible resource paritioning, based on the concept of MAClets. MAClets are software programs uploaded and executed on-demand over wireless cards, and devised to change the card’s real-time medium access operation. MAClets can be directly conveyed within data packets and executed on hard-coded devices acting as virtual MAC machines. A multi-operator virtualization experiment involving the distribution of MAClets within data packets, and their execution over commodity WLAN cards, shows the flexibility and viability of the proposed concept.