Comprehensive Report on Virtual Networks: Concepts and Analysis

This report provides a comprehensive overview of virtual networks, beginning with an introduction to their flexibility and the benefits of virtual environments, which include cost-effectiveness and ease of management. The report delves into the history of virtual networks, tracing back to the developme...Read More

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Virtual Networks
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Introduction
Virtual networks are identified as virtual environments that offer an array of possibilities and plenty of
flexibility. The network infrastructure is responsible for providing hardware and software environments at
very low rates. According to experts, the virtual network system is a play area or a test space for trying
new ideas safely. You don’t have to worry about breaking anything in a virtual setting. Also, there are no
inconvenient switch ports or wirings inside a virtual environment. Very little work has to be done
configuring a host virtual system. Most of the tasks are achieved through emulation of the entire hardware
entity and with network protocols that are carefully supported by the guest operating system. The only
exception in virtual networks would be the NAT Adapter that works with the TCP/IP protocol.
History of Virtual Networks
The history of virtual private networks traces back to early 1996s. This was when Gurdeep Singh-Pall of
Microsoft invented the Point to Point Tunneling Protocol alias (PPTP). The protocol was used to
implement virtual private networks [1]. The protocol allowed users to establish secure internet
connections. The connections allowed them to work safely from remote locations like home. This was an
important milestone in the evolution of virtual private networks. In the next few years, VPNs changed
drastically. There were several different types of virtual networks introduced with a variety of protocols.
This includes the SSTP, PPTP, L2TP/IPSec and OpenVPN [2]. Some third party companies invested on
virtual networks to host their private servers. These servers were protected using different types of
encryption algorithms, ranging from asymmetric to hashing to symmetric. Today, virtual networks are
completely diverse. More than two-third of the world uses virtual networks. They are a part of
government surveillance teams, online security and the censorship board.
Explanation of Virtual Networks
The virtual networks are private connections that establish a relationship between people and devices in
the internet. It can be used to connect several thousand users together. Experts consider the virtual

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networks as an internet, inside the main internet. It allows users to establish secure connections that are
encrypted and carefully protected from prying eyes, hackers and cyber criminals [3]. The original virtual
network was designed for big businesses. It was meant to reduce the chances of hacking and data loss.
Today, virtual networks are used in many places.
Virtual networks are quite similar to having your very own local network connection. It is a connection
where devices can be used to access the internet easily. The network depends on a wide range of
tunneling protocols that can hide the source with high-level encryption algorithms [4]. These algorithms
make sure data is never lost from the network. Also, anyone unintended will not see the data.
Geo-restriction and censorship are two important issues that drive the need for virtual network
technologies. Censorship has a history that dates back to various problems in the social media. Also, the
demand for efficient virtual networks became web-surfers [5].
Advantages and Disadvantages of Virtual Networks
Advantages
There are several benefits in defining virtual networks. First of all, the networks are very easy to define.
This reduces the need for network hardware devices. With virtual networks, companies don’t have to
invest on hubs or cables [6]. Also, the organization’s network will have very little dependencies on
complicated hardware configuration. This makes centralized access easy and management a simple
process. Two, it is possible to consolidate plenty of guest systems in virtual machines. All the guest
systems can be consolidated to a single processor. This means, the cost and complexity in running
separate hardware gets eliminated. Virtual networks don’t have the maintenance issues found in
traditional networks. Three, traffic outside the virtual networks don’t have to be considered. As a result,
the virtual networks are bound to secure, available and high in performance. Likewise, a considerable
amount of transparency is achieved in these networks.
Disadvantages

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An interesting problem with virtual networks is that unlike traditional servers, network devices are bound
to engage in I/O intense activities. This includes the process of moving data across networks. These tasks
need dedicated hardware devices. The demand for high speed packet forwarding and routing with
encryption algorithms and load balancing are necessary. All these properties are highly silicon dependent.
Virtual machines don’t have dedicated hardware devices. That means, the above mentioned tasks should
be performed by a general purpose processor. This will affect the overall performance of the system.
Trying to implement firewalls, routers and switches virtually will burn the CPU cycles. In some cases, the
CPU would have plenty of idle time. Trying to utilize all hardware devices effectively in a virtual
environment is difficult. Though there are agents to help with load balancing and network usage, the
entire process is an overhead and difficult to handle.
Improvements done to Virtual Networks
An important area that has experienced many improvements in the past few years would be virtual
network management. Many protocols are designed to help with virtual network management. Simple
Network management Protocol (SNMP) was founded to help data management in virtual networks [7].
The protocol runs in a separate virtual machine with a SNMP agent. The agent supports many
management information base variables. The SNMP agent relies on a routine that is pre-defined. Details
about this protocol are carefully documented in RFC 1493. The SNMP agent can be broken into smaller
subagents. These agents are responsible for acquiring data from the switch. Additionally, they provide a
programming interface for real information [8].
Conclusion
Virtual networks are responsible for providing various resource sharing capabilities. This includes
resources like storage and other devices. When the guest operating system doesn’t require high network
bandwidth, the process of sharing networking devices is wise. It would be better to share devices rather
than establish dedicated resources. Also, network management becomes easy with virtual networks.

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Common techniques that are a part of virtual networks would be: channel to channel adapter connections
and inter-user communication vehicle. These methods are responsible for creating virtual point to point
connections between two IP addresses or systems.

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References
[1] B.A. Forouzan, TCP/IP Protocol Suite. Pennsylvania: McGraw-Hill Publishing Co., 2005.
[2] M. Gupta, Building a Virtual Private Network. Ohio: Muska & Lipman/Premier-Trade, 2002.
[3] B. S. Davie and Y. Rekhter, MPLS: Technology and Applications. Massachusetts: Morgan Kaufmann
Publishers In., 2005
[4] B. Odiyo, Virtual Private Network. Available:
https://it.uu.se/edu/course/homepage/sakdat/ht06/assignments/pm/programme/odiyo-dwarkanath.pdf
[Accessed: Aug 28, 2017]
[5] N. Duffield, P. Goyal, A. G. Greenberg and J. E. van der Merwe, "A flexible model for resource
management in virtual private networks," ACM, vol. 29, no. 4, pp. 95-108, Oct. 1999
[6] T. Braun, M. Gunter, M. Kasumi and I. Khalil, Virtual Private Network Architecture. Available:
http://home.inf.unibe.ch/~rvs/research/publications/TR-IAM-99-001.pdf [Accessed: Aug 28, 2017]
[7] J. D. Case, M. Fedor, M. L. Schoffstall, and C. Davin, "Simple Network Management Protocol," RFC
1157, May 1990.
[8] W. Stallings, SNMP, SNMPv2, SNMPv3, and RMON 1 and 2. Boston: Addison Wesley, 1998.