Introduction

Testbed@TWISC provides integrated access to a wide range of experimental environments: from simulated to emulated to wide-area network testbeds. Testbed@TWISC strives to preserve the control and ease of use of simulation, without sacrificing the realism of emulation and live network experimentation.

It's unifies all of these environments under a common user interface, and integrates the three into a common framework. This framework provides abstractions, services, and namespaces common to all, such as allocation and naming of nodes and links. By mapping the abstractions into domain-specific mechanisms and internal names, Testbed@TWISC masks much of the heterogeneity of the different approaches.

Testbed@TWISC's local installation features high-speed Cisco switches connecting five 100Mbit interfaces on each of 155 PCs. The PC nodes can be used as edge nodes running arbitrary programs, simulated routers, traffic-shaping nodes, or traffic generators. While an "experiment" is running, the experiment (and its associated researchers) get exclusive use of the assigned machines, including root access. We provide default OS software (Fedora Core 6); the default configuration on your nodes includes accounts for project members, root access, DNS service, and standard compilers, linkers, and editors. Fundamentally, however, all the software you run on it, including all bits on the disks, is replaceable and entirely your choice. The same applies to the network's characteristics, including its topology: configurable by users.

Numerous other sites have set up their own network emulators using Emulab's software, including the University of Kentucky testbed, and the Georgia Tech Testbed.

Links to help you get started:

• Authorization Scheme, Policy, and "How To Get Started"
• Overview of Installed Software
• Hardware Overview, "Emulab Classic"
• Security Issues
• Administrative Policies and Disclaimer

Contact

If you have any questions, please write advice to: testbed(at)cyrpto.ee.ncku.edu.tw