Performance Evaluation of MikroTik-based Virtual Machine for Small-Scale Network Virtualization on VMware Platform

Abstract

Network virtualization allow us to integrate network functional at the level of virtualization together with the virtual machines. While VMware platform provide network virtualization built-in on its hypervisor (VMware ESXi) but with limited function at layer 2 of OSI layer. Additional solutions were offered but targeted for advanced environment, arising a question for a solution targeted at small-scale. The experimental tests performed showed that Mikrotik-based virtual machine can be used to leverage the network virtualization function for layer 3 and layer 4 of OSI layers. The throughput-rate tests were compared physical-routing with virtual-routing solution. The tests also reveal that virtual-routing solution has higher throughput-rate compared with physical-routing, this happen because the end-to-end data transmission was processed virtually at the hypervisor level. This design also has a limitation, since VMware only allows up to 10 virtual network per virtual machine, which means only up to 10 network addresses supported per Mikrotik-based virtual machine.