Network Services in FABRIC

FABRIC offers a rich set of what are called ‘Network Services’, abstractions of connectivity options possible between elements of your experiment in FABRIC dataplane.

FABRIC offers Layer 2, Layer 3 and specialized services. Layer 2 services create on-demand Ethernet connections between dataplane interfaces in one or more FABRIC sites. Similarly Layer 3 services offer ‘out-of-the-box’ IPv4 or IPv6 connectivity.

The majority of the time when using FABlib you can simply select whether you want a Layer2 or a Layer 3 (IPv4 or IPv6) network service and the API will automatically select the appropriate internal FABRIC service type for you.

The remainder of this section discusses these internal FABRIC service types that support different properties of connections, this discussion may help you with debugging or understanding the behavior of your experiments.

Note that many services require special project permissions to be granted before they can be used.

Layer 2 Services

Service NameService DescriptionPermissions Required
L2BridgeA single-site Ethernet service that can connect multiple Basic and Dedicated interfaces in a single siteNo special permissions.
L2STSA site-to-site Ethernet service that can connect multiple Basic and Dedicated interfaces between exactly two sitesSlice.Multisite.
L2PTPA port-to-port Ethernet service that can connect exactly two dedicated interfaces between two sites.Slice.Multisite.
Layer 2 Services

In addition to connecting together VM slivers in your slice L2 Services can also connect to other testbeds (e.g. Chameleon, CloudLab), HPC facilities, scientific instruments and campus resources via Facility Ports.

Layer 3 Services

Service NameService DescriptionAddress SpacePermissions
Required
FABNetv4An IPv4 service with RFC1918 addressing which can connect any number of interfaces across any number of sites. Communication with the outside world (public Internet) is not possible.RFC1918 assigned by FABRICNo special permission if using within a single site, otherwise Slice.Multisite.
FABNetv6An IPv6 service using FABRIC’s IPv6 address allocation, which can connect any number of interfaces across any number of sites. Communication with the outside world (public IPv6 Internet) is not possible.2602:FCFB::/36No special permission if using within a single site, otherwise Slice.Multisite.
FABNetv4ExtAn IPv4 service which uses FABRIC’s IPv4 public addresses which can connect any number of interfaces across any number of sites. Selected nodes can communicate with the outside world.23.134.232.0/22Net.FABNetv4Ext1
FABNetv6ExtAn IPv6 service which uses FABRIC’s IPv6 public addresses which can connect any number of interfaces across any number of sites. Selected nodes can communicate with the outside world (IPv6 Internet).2602:FCFB::/36Net.FABNetv6Ext1
L3VPNA Layer 3 VPN service which constructs a privately routed L3 network (IPv4 or IPv6) with user-selected addressing.RFC1918 assigned by user.No special permission if using within a single site, otherwise Slice.Multisite.
Layer 3 Services

Specialized Services

Service NameService DescriptionPermissions
Requir
ed
PortMirrorA service that allows to mirror a single physical port in FABRIC topology into a Dedicated card port at a given site.Net.PortMirror2
Specialized Services

1 Because FABNetv4Ext and FABNetv6Ext expose your slice directly to the outside world, additional security review is required prior to granting this permission

2 Because PortMirror service allows experimenters to eavesdrop on traffic from other experiments, additional security review is required prior to granting this permission.

Updated on November 25, 2023

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