Abstraction and Control of Transport Networks

Abstract

Virtual network operation refers to the creation of a virtualized environment allowing operators to view the abstraction of the underlying multi-admin, multi-vendor, multi-technology networks and to operate, control and manage these multiple networks as a single virtualized network. Another dimension of virtual network operation is associated with the use of the common core transport network resources by multi-tenant service networks as a way of providing a virtualized infrastructure to flexibly offer new services and applications. The work effort investigating this problem space is known as Abstraction and Control of Transport Networks (ACTN). This chapter provides an ACTN problem description, identifies the scope of this effort, and outlines the core requirements to facilitate virtual network operation.