I fail to see how this is different than virtual bridges (ie: br<i>n</i> interfaces in linux). Such interfaces exist within the host OS in a virtualized environment, support 802.1q trunks, and exhibit quite a lot of flexibility. They're also fast (they're faster than I've ever had need for, though I don't know exact numbers offhand). Am I missing something, or hasn't this been done before?
It looks a lot as VDE (virtual distributed ethernet) [0] (quickly referenced in the paper).<p>Qemu used to support VDE natively for a while, then the development stopped and its support has been removed from mainline. It was cool while it lasted.<p>The main differences with VDE seem to be that VALE uses a kernel backend instead of being 100% in user space and that VALE is limited to local ethernet while VDE provided also remote "plugs" and "cables".<p>[0] <a href="http://vde.sourceforge.net/" rel="nofollow">http://vde.sourceforge.net/</a>
Does anyone know if the related netmap project[1] is being consider for inclusion into mainline linux? I haven't seen much discussion of the project apart from a few HN and proggit threads. It looks like effort was made to make netmap compatible with existing systems, although according to the author, small portions of network drivers need to be rewritten.<p>[1] <a href="http://info.iet.unipi.it/~luigi/netmap/" rel="nofollow">http://info.iet.unipi.it/~luigi/netmap/</a>