Experience with an Evolving Overlay Network Testbed

David G. Andersen, Hari Balakrishnan, M. Frans Kaashoek, Robert Morris.
ACM Computer Communications Review (to appear)

The MIT RON testbed consists of 36 Internet-connected nodes at 31 different sites. It has been in operation for two years. This paper presents an overview of the testbed, summarizes some of the research for which it has proved useful, and presents the lessons we learned during its development. The testbed has been useful both for our own research and for that of external researchers because of its heterogeneous, diverse network connections; its homogenous hardware and software platform; its incremental, bottom-up development; and its easy configuration and management tools.

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