Wide-area Nodes
Emulab's wide-area effort includes 40+ (and growing) PCs scattered
around world, connected via commodity internet, internet2, DSL and
cable modem. Researchers wishing to run experiments on the "real"
internet can request permission to use the wide-area nodes. Similar to
experiments using just local Emulab nodes, you can setup network
overlays and automated traffic generation. However, certain policies
and restrictions are in place, so please review these in case your
needs conflict.
- All access to wide-area nodes is via ssh. There are no passwords stored
on wide-area nodes so you must upload your public keys via
Emulab's web interface, and use an authentication agent to
forward your private keys.
- Access is currently non-root, without the ability to spoof or
sniff traffic.
- No non-congestion controlled flows, no big transfers
unless pre-cleared or during really off hours, and no contact
between the wide-area nodes and unapproved external nodes (i.e. no
pinging or tracerouting to all points on the globe). We haven't
had any problems with external researchers on the nodes we've
opened up thus far, including a cable modem, but we'll keep
a very careful eye on it.
- Several of the nodes (nc-cable, mediaone-ma, and msanders) are on
residential low bandwidth links. No high bandwidth flows except
during off (late night) hours.
- No hacking attempts of the wide-area nodes or external nodes!
- No sending mail from the wide-area nodes.
- No processes may run with elevated priority without prior
permission. If permission is granted, nodes may run at up
to nice -3. In no event may users processes use realtime
scheduling, or any other scheduling mechanism that can block
the system for an extensive amount of time.
- Remember, the nodes are a shared resource. Please do not
spin-wait for extended periods of time. (If possible, do not
spin-wait at all!). The testbed nodes run with a 1ms scheduling
granularity, so operations such as nanosleep are
surprisingly effective.
Emulab's wide-area nodes are comprised of nodes setup by Emulab sites,
as well as nodes from the MIT Testbed (also called the RON Cluster).
To see what wide-area nodes are available, log into
Emulab, and visit the
widearea status page.