1 Abstract — Network virtualisation is seen now from a different perspective. Instead of using it as a mere tool for testing new protocols and new architectures, it can be used as a key element of the future internet: it will enable and trigger the development of new protocols and different architectures in coexistence with the existing ones. Recently, the interest from the operators and industry mainstream in network virtualisation has grown quite significantly, as the potential benefits of virtualisation became clearer, both from an economical and an operational point of view. So far, the concept has been mainly a research topic and has been materialized in small-scale testbeds and research network environments. The challenges posed by the deployment of virtualisation in operator networks are still largely unknown and require urgent study. In this paper, we present the 4WARD architecture for network virtualisation and, based on this architecture, we propose a framework for network resource control in virtualisation-based network environments. We also present the developed virtual network testbed and an assessment is made to the framework. Index Terms—Future Internet, Network Virtualisation, Virtual Network Provider and Operator, Infrastructure Provider. I. INTRODUCTION N networking, new trends are emerging every day, applications are pumping up as mushrooms, sensors are invading everywhere and the network seems to be getting far away from this reality due to its ossification and lack of dynamism. Clean slate approaches are being hailed as the solution for a better network [1]-[6]. For now, the fulfilment of this discussion seems to be somehow fuzzy. In the meantime, network virtualisation has achieved an increasing prominence in networking and telecommunications fields in the last couple of years. Initially, the interest in network virtualisation was mainly pushed by Future Internet research initiatives [7]-[10], mainly with the objective to find a platform on which novel Internet architectures could be experimented and evaluated without limitations or constraints, namely those associated with the traditional IP model. Later on, it became clear that virtualisation could constitute a key component of next-generation Internet architecture itself [11], and not just as a mere platform for experimentation. Perhaps more importantly for network operators, it also became clear that network virtualisation could provide a number of short/medium term business advantages, with potential reduction of costs and increase of revenues, as an interesting tool from an operational point of view. However, the large-scale deployment of network virtualisation by commercial operators faces a number of challenges, most of which have not been fully evaluated up to now. One of the key issues with network virtualisation is the management and control of network infrastructure resources - more specifically, how to map, or embed, virtual resources into physical substrate resources. Although this problem has been already addressed in the literature [12]-[17], the proposed solutions have been mainly oriented to research network environments, overlooking key constraints and requirements of commercial operator networks. Network virtualisation has followed the usual development cycle, which started with research and testbed experimentation through a number of research initiatives. Validation for deployment in commercial operator networks is still largely unaccomplished and represents a logical continuation of the research efforts so far. This paper aims at providing a contribution in this direction. Our main focus is the management and control of network infrastructure resources in a network virtualisation environment. We present both the concept and an experimental testbed that entails the management and control of virtual networks in an operator perspective. The starting point of this paper is the network virtualisation architecture and business model developed in the framework of the 4WARD project [18]. The paper is organized as follows. Section II provides a general overview of network virtualisation. The 4WARD network virtualisation business model and roles are briefly explained. In particular, the interface between the virtual network provider and the infrastructure provider is analyzed in detail. Section III examines the problems of resource control in a network virtualisation environment, mainly from the point of view of the infrastructure provider, and proposes a solution for resource negotiation and control. Section IV explains with some detail a framework for resource, allocation, monitoring and controlling and present some printouts of the framework environment. Section V briefly describes a small-scale testbed, currently under development, introducing experiments to evaluate the framework and comments on the obtained results. Finally, section VI concludes with a summary and possible directions for future work. A Network Virtualisation framework in Operator Perspective Márcio Melo Departamento de Electrónica, Telecomunicações e Informática Universidade de Aveiro Portugal Telecom Inovação Aveiro, Portugal marciomelo@ua.pt I