ExoGENI Testbed

ExoGENI is a new GENI testbed that links GENI to two advances in virtual infrastructure services outside of GENI: open cloud computing (OpenStack) and dynamic circuit fabrics. ExoGENI orchestrates a federation of independent cloud sites located across the US and circuit providers, like Internet2 and ESnet through their native IaaS API interfaces, and links them to other GENI tools and resources.

ExoGENI is, in effect, a widely distributed networked infrastructure-as-a-service (NIaaS) platform geared towards experimentation and computational tasks. ExoGENI employs sophisticated topology embedding algorithms that take advantage of semantic resource descriptions using NDL-OWL – a variant of Network Description Language.

Individual ExoGENI deployments consist of cloud site “racks” on host campuses, linked with national research networks through programmable exchange points. The ExoGENI sites and control software are enabled for flexible networking operations using traditional VLAN-based switching and OpenFlow. Using ORCA (Open Resource Control Architecture) control framework software, ExoGENI offers a powerful unified hosting platform for deeply networked, multi-domain, multi-site cloud applications. We intend that ExoGENI will seed a larger, evolving platform linking other third- party cloud sites, transport networks, and other infrastructure services, and that it will enable real-world deployment of innovative distributed services and new visions of a Future Internet.