With Evolution for Revolution: The FEDERICA Ap- proach

Over the last two decades the importance of data networking for human beings and systems has increased beyond any expectation in size, complexity and impact on society. Today, the technology is offering the ubiquitous and constant possibility to be connected to the Internet at a wide range of speeds. The traditional management solutions have up to now followed an evolutionary path, however, the scale of the Internet and emerging novel architectures such as peer-to-peer, ad-hoc networks, as well as virtualization capable network infrastructures require focused and possibly revolutionary changes in management approaches. This article elaborates on challenges posed by the virtualizations’ renaissance as experienced in planning, developing and operating the FEDERICA infrastructure. The European Community co-funded project FEDERICA, like other worldwide initiatives, including FIND/GENI in the United States, NWGN in Japan, and FIRE program in Europe, is supporting the development of the future Internet. FEDERICA extends the virtualization capabilities of the current hardware and software to provide a flexible infrastructure to host disrupting testing by networking researchers.