Federating Wired and Wireless Test Facilities through Emulab and OMF: The iLab.t Use Case

The IBBT iLab.t technology centre provides computing hardware, software tools and measurement equipment to support researchers and developers in building their ICT solutions, and in measuring the performance of these solutions. Among other things, the iLab.t hosts several generic Emulab-based wired test environments called the Virtual Walls, and two wireless test environments which are grouped under the name w-iLab.t. Until very recently, these wired and wireless test facilities each had their own history: they were deployed and maintained by a different group of people, were operated using different tools, and each had their own community of experimenters. This paper provides insight on the origin and evolution of the Virtual Wall and w-iLab.t facilities. It explains how these facilities were federated, by using the best parts of both the OMF and Emulab frameworks. It discusses the benefits of our local federation as well as our future federation plans.