Network of Namespaces and Layer 2 Local Area Clouds

A Network of Namespaces (NoN) interconnects network namespaces running on different hosts as if they were on the same (virtual) Local Area Network. It is possible to set up and maintain NoN using VLANs, veth, kernel bridge definitions,… but it would be a daunting work for system administrators.

VXVDE and VXVDEX implement zero-configuration NoN. Starting a namespace connected to a NoN it is as simple as typing a command like: “vdens vxvde://“. This new approach is fast (about the same performance figures of VXLAN’s kernel implementation) and it runs on vanilla Linux kernels.

VXVDEX provides NoN with access control.

Users can grant or deny network related ambient capabilities to their processes (e.g. using cado commands: cado is like sudo but it provides rights at capability level).

This talk introduces the concept of NoN, gives some example of usage scenarios and provides a live demo of the tools.