A survey of software tools for the creation of networked testbeds

Abstract—The development of testbeds for networking research has been driven by the need for experimentation with complex systems, like the Internet, that simplistic simulators fail to reproduce. Recently, networked testbeds seem to head towards more advanced, flexible and automated experimental platforms mainly as the results of many projects and research initiatives in the field of Future Internet architectures. Although numerous publications can be found, most of them refer to prototypes and work in progress rather than to publicly available software that is ready to be widely used for the creation of such testbeds. The first contribution is the development of a framework that can be used to capture the main features of the available software. The second contribution is a literature review of state-of-the-art tools and their comparison under common criteria. This systematic analysis allows other researchers to make informed decisions about the usability of already available tools and decrease the initial cost of developing a new testbed, leading to an even wider use of such platforms. This paper provides the reader with a useful reference list of readily available software to choose from while designing or upgrading a research infrastructure, laboratory or experimentation facility. Keywords—distributed test bed; emulation ; network research;