# vim-emu: A NFV multi-PoP emulation platform This emulation platform was created to support network service developers to locally prototype and test their network services in realistic end-to-end multi-PoP scenarios. It allows the execution of real network functions, packaged as Docker containers, in emulated network topologies running locally on the developer's machine. The emulation platform also offers OpenStack-like APIs for each emulated PoP so that it can integrate with MANO solutions, like OSM. The core of the emulation platform is based on [Containernet](https://containernet.github.io). The emulation platform `vim-emu` is developed as part of OSM's DevOps MDG. --- ## Acknowledgments This software was originally developed by the [SONATA project](http://www.sonata-nfv.eu) and the [5GTANGO project](https://5gtango.eu/), funded by the European Commission under grant number 671517 and 761493 through the Horizon 2020 and 5G-PPP programs. ## Cite this work If you use the emulation platform for your research and/or other publications, please cite the following paper to reference our work: * M. Peuster, H. Karl, and S. v. Rossem: [MeDICINE: Rapid Prototyping of Production-Ready Network Services in Multi-PoP Environments](http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/7919490/). IEEE Conference on Network Function Virtualization and Software Defined Networks (NFV-SDN), Palo Alto, CA, USA, pp. 148-153. doi: 10.1109/NFV-SDN.2016.7919490. (2016) Bibtex: ```bibtex @inproceedings{peuster2016medicine, author={M. Peuster and H. Karl and S. van Rossem}, booktitle={2016 IEEE Conference on Network Function Virtualization and Software Defined Networks (NFV-SDN)}, title={MeDICINE: Rapid prototyping of production-ready network services in multi-PoP environments}, year={2016}, volume={}, number={}, pages={148-153}, doi={10.1109/NFV-SDN.2016.7919490}, month={Nov} } ``` --- ## Installation There are multiple ways to install and use the emulation platform. The easiest way is the automated installation using the OSM installer. The bare-metal installation requires a freshly installed **Ubuntu 18.04 LTS** and is done by an Ansible playbook. Another option is to use a nested Docker environment to run the emulator inside a Docker container. ### Automated OSM installation This installation option applies if you want to use vim-emu in combination with OSM. ```sh ./install_osm.sh --vimemu ``` This command will install OSM as well as the emulator (as a Docker container) on a local machine. It is recommended to use a machine with Ubuntu 18.04 LTS. More details about this installation option can be found in the [OSM wiki](https://osm.etsi.org/wikipub/index.php/VIM_emulator). ### Standalone installation #### Option 1: Bare-metal installation ```sh sudo apt-get install ansible git aptitude ``` ##### Step 1. Containernet installation ```sh cd git clone https://github.com/containernet/containernet.git cd ~/containernet/ansible sudo ansible-playbook -i "localhost," -c local install.yml cd .. sudo make develop ``` ##### Step 2. vim-emu installation ```sh cd git clone https://osm.etsi.org/gerrit/osm/vim-emu.git cd ~/vim-emu/ansible sudo ansible-playbook -i "localhost," -c local install.yml cd .. sudo python3 setup.py develop ``` #### Option 2: Nested Docker Deployment This option requires a Docker installation on the host machine on which the emulator should be deployed. Build: ```sh git clone https://osm.etsi.org/gerrit/osm/vim-emu.git cd ~/vim-emu # build the container: docker build -t vim-emu-img . ``` Run: ```sh # run the (interactive) container: docker run --name vim-emu -it --rm --privileged --pid='host' -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock vim-emu-img /bin/bash ``` --- ## Usage ### Example This simple example shows how to start the emulator with a simple topology (terminal 1) and how to start (terminal 2) some empty VNF containers in the emulated datacenters (PoPs) by using the vim-emu CLI. First terminal: ```sh # start the emulation platform with a single NFV data center sudo python3 examples/default_single_dc_topology.py ``` Second terminal (use `docker exec vim-emu ` for nested Docker deployment): ```sh # start two simple VNFs vim-emu compute start -d dc1 -n vnf1 vim-emu compute start -d dc1 -n vnf2 vim-emu compute list ``` First terminal: ```sh # check the connectivity between the two VNFs # press containernet> vnf1 ifconfig containernet> vnf1 ping -c2 vnf2 ``` A more advanced example that includes OSM can be found in the [official vim-emu documentation in the OSM wiki](https://osm.etsi.org/wikipub/index.php/VIM_emulator). --- ## Documentation * [Official vim-emu repository mirror on GitHub](https://github.com/containernet/vim-emu) * [Official vim-emu documentation in the OSM wiki](https://osm.etsi.org/wikipub/index.php/VIM_emulator) * [Full vim-emu documentation on GitHub](https://github.com/containernet/vim-emu) * [Mininet](http://mininet.org) * [Containernet](https://containernet.github.io) * [Maxinet](https://maxinet.github.io) --- ## Development ### How to contribute? Please check [this OSM wiki page](https://osm.etsi.org/wikipub/index.php/Workflow_with_OSM_tools) to learn how to contribute to a OSM module. ### Testing ```sh sudo pytest -v ``` --- ## Contributors * [Manuel Peuster (lead developer)](https://github.com/mpeuster) * [Hadi Razzaghi Kouchaksaraei](https://github.com/hadik3r) * [Wouter Tavernier](https://github.com/wtaverni) * [Geoffroy Chollon](https://github.com/cgeoffroy) * [Eduard Maas](https://github.com/edmaas) * [Malte Splietker](https://github.com/splietker) * [Johannes Kampmeyer](https://github.com/xschlef) * [Stefan Schneider](https://github.com/StefanUPB) * [Erik Schilling](https://github.com/Ablu) * [Rafael Schellenberg](https://github.com/RafaelSche) ## License The emulation platform is published under Apache 2.0 license. Please see the LICENSE file for more details. ## Contact Manuel Peuster * Mail: * Twitter: [@ManuelPeuster](https://twitter.com/ManuelPeuster) * GitHub: [@mpeuster](https://github.com/mpeuster) * Website: [https://peuster.de](https://peuster.de)