Towards full network virtualization in horizontal IaaS federation: Security issues

Abstract

Horizontal IaaS federation exploits datacenter for federation of IaaS provider by supplying virtual nodes (e.g. virtual machines, virtual switches, and virtual routers) and virtual links. Today's datacenters for cloud computing do not supply full network virtualization in terms of user-level network management and user-agreed network topology. The datacenters lack the basic security services required for the collocation of tenants' virtual networks. The network virtualization research projects from academia and industry support full network virtualization but lack the basic security services required for the collocation of tenants' virtual networks. This paper investigates the security issues in four areas namely, (a) monolithic IaaS cloud, (b) network virtualization research projects, (c) datacenter network virtualization and (d) virtual resources to incorporate full network virtualization environment in horizontal IaaS federation. Further, it presents the security related qualitative comparisons of datacenters, network virtualization research projects and virtual resources to incorporate full network virtualization in horizontal IaaS federation. © 2013 Nimkar and Ghosh.