Virtual Distributed Ethernet (VDE) is a set of programs to provide virtual software-defined

Ethernet Ethernet () is a family of wired computer networking technologies commonly used in local area networks (LAN), metropolitan area networks (MAN) and wide area networks (WAN). It was commercially introduced in 1980 and first standardized in ...

network interface controller A network interface controller (NIC, also known as a network interface card, network adapter, LAN adapter or physical network interface, and by similar terms) is a computer hardware component that connects a computer to a computer network. E ...

s (NICs) across multiple devices, typically computers, which are either virtual or physical. It forms part of the Virtual Square project from the Italian

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whose code is available on public servers using free software licenses, mostly

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. Researchers at the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science,

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, Cincinnati OH, US are also working on the project. It is one of the available networking methods for the

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which i ...

Kernel-based Virtual Machine Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) is a virtualization module in the Linux kernel that allows the kernel to function as a hypervisor. It was merged into the mainline Linux kernel in version 2.6.20, which was released on February 5, 2007. KVM ...

(KVM) and forms part of some

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such as Ubuntu Precise (12.04 LTS) and

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Overview

Software-defined networking Software-defined networking (SDN) technology is an approach to network management that enables dynamic, programmatically efficient network configuration in order to improve network performance and monitoring, making it more like cloud computing ...

is the dynamic creation of virtual network infrastructure that is completely decoupled and independent of any physical network hardware.

Structure

VDE (Virtual Distributed Ethernet) comprises 5 main components:

VDE switch

A virtual ethernet switch is equivalent of a physical switch with multiple virtual ports supporting connections from VDE devices. Supports telnet and a web interface for monitoring and configuration.

VDE plug

Simulates a plug on the end of a physical ethernet cable such as the

8P8C A modular connector is a type of electrical connector for cords and cables of electronic devices and appliances, such as in computer networking, telecommunication equipment, and audio headsets. Modular connectors were originally developed for ...

. It forms the connection point between the host and the virtual VDE wire.

VDE wire

Receives the data from a VDE plug and transports it to another VDE plug. Obviously performing the same function as the wires within normal ethernet cabling.

VDE cable

The combination of 2 VDE plugs and 1 VDE wire is called a VDE cable.

VDE cryptcab

A connectionless protocol that encrypts the data before transmitting it and that decrypts the data on the other side. Informally known as VDE Encrypted Cable.

References

{{reflist Network architecture