Design And Implementation Of Network Supporting Environment For A Virtual Experimental Platform

Experimental platform is an important part of Computer Technology. Every product need to be tested on an experimental platform after it is developed– no matter it is for research or for application. However, traditional experimental platforms, which are built based on physical machines, have many disadvantages on variety, security and repeatability. The revival of virtual machine technology proposed a solution to this problem. Although virtual machine technology has been developing very quickly, it is still a newly-developed technology. The development of related virtualized computing environment is still in its starting phase and remains a challenging task, especially on the construction of the network supporting environment for a virtual experimental platform.Based on virtualization technology, this paper designs and implements a virtual network supporting environment from networking functions of virtual machines to support our virtualized experimental platform RuVisen (Renmin University VIrtualized Security Environment).The contribution of this paper is listed as follows:First, based on the concept of Virtual Machine Clan, network virtualization on data-link layer is implemented with the capture, modification and forwarding of Ethernet packet.Second, it designs and implements the operation of start/shutdown/save/load for virtual networks, which provides support both for fast recovery and using by phases.Third, an effective way of controlling virtual machine lifecycles is designed and implemented. This solves the problem of low-efficiency while configuring and using virtual machines in the network environment;Fourth, it provides both GUI and interface functions to support the development of upper platform. Lastly,based on the analysis of system performance, the initial optimizing methods are proposed, specifically on storage of virtual machine image files and live migration of virtual machines.All in all, the development of this virtual network environment implements an instance of virtualization, and provides good support of virtualized experimental platform for the research on trusted computing of the National 863 Program.