In this talk we present the current state of the GENI (Global Environment for Network Innovation) ORCA-BEN project aimed at designing and implementing a GENI Control Framework prototype - a software suite capable of dynamically creating 'slices' of substrate - network and edge resources, for the purposes of running repeatable distributed experiments. The project uses BEN (Breakable Experimental Network) testbed connecting UNC-CH, RENCI, Duke and NCSU and allows for interconnection of resources connected locally to BEN to testbeds and resources elsewhere in the US via national research backbones.

We will discuss and demonstrate ORCA (Open Resource Control Architecture) core functionality - ability to dynamically interconnect multiple distributed testbeds and compute clouds via layer 2 VLANs. We will present the emerging measurement capabilities developed for GENI to support experimental activities and availability of various types of substrates available through ORCA or other control frameworks for early experimentation. We will also touch on some of the problems faced in developing the early prototype - authentication/authorization and resource representation.

Ilia Baldine leads RENCI's network research and infrastructure programs. He is a networking researcher with a wide range of interests, including high-speed optical network architectures, cross-layer interactions, novel signaling schemes and network security. Before coming to RENCI, Baldine was the principal scientist at the Center for Advanced Network Research at the Research Triangle Institute, and a network research engineer at the Advanced Network Research group at MCNC, where was a team member and a leader of a number of federally funded research efforts. He holds Ph.D. and MS degrees in computer science from North Carolina State University.