Comparative Assessment of Multiple IaC Tools for Provisioning Emulated SDN Topologies in Cloud Environments
Resumo
This paper presents a comparative analysis of multiple Infrastructure as Code (IaC) approaches applied to the provisioning of emulated SDN topologies in cloud environments. The study considers seven widely used tools, evaluated on two SDN topologies with distinct structural characteristics, one symmetric and the other asymmetric. To this end, an experimental evaluation was conducted under controlled conditions, considering metrics related to time, computational resource usage, and stability across executions. The results reveal consistent differences in the operational behavior of the analyzed approaches, indicating that the execution architecture of each tool significantly influences scenario provisioning. This work contributes to expanding the empirical understanding of the use of IaC in container-based SDN emulation environments deployed and executed in the cloud.Referências
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Bodnar, L., Bodnar, M., Shulakova, K., Vasylenko, O., Siemens, E., Tsarov, R., Yavorska, O., and Tyurikova, O. (2024). Advanced techniques for iac: Enhancing automation and optimization in cloud-based infrastructure management. In Proceedings of Internatilnal Conference on Applied Innovation in IT, volume 12, pages 19–25. Anhalt University of Applied Sciences.
Dsilva, N., Karunakaran, V., Autenrieth, A., Elbers, J.-P., and Bauschert, T. (2025). Network automation using netdevops in optical networks. In 2025 International Conference on Optical Network Design and Modeling (ONDM), pages 1–3.
Elradi, M. D. (2023). Ansible: A reliable tool for automation. Electrical and Computer Engineering Studies, 2(1):1–11.
Huang, J., Li, W., Li, Q., Zhang, T., Dong, P., and Wang, J. (2020). Tuning high flow concurrency for mptcp in data center networks. Journal of Cloud Computing, 9(1):13.
Lima, V., Callado, A., Bonfim, M., and Gonçalves, E. (2026). Comparative performance analysis of iac tools for deploying containerized sdn topologies in cloud environments. In Anais do XLIV Simpósio Brasileiro de Redes de Computadores e Sistemas Distribuídos, pages 463–476, Porto Alegre, RS, Brasil. SBC.
Morris, K. (2020). Infrastructure as code. O’Reilly Media.
Qiu, Y., Kon, P. T. J., Xing, J., Huang, Y., Liu, H., Wang, X., Huang, P., Chowdhury, M., and Chen, A. (2023). Simplifying cloud management with cloudless computing. In Proceedings of the 22nd ACM Workshop on Hot Topics in Networks, HotNets ’23, page 95–101, New York, NY, USA. Association for Computing Machinery.
Salazar-Chacón, G. and Parra, D. M. (2023). Infrastructure-as-code in open-networking: Git, ansible, and cumulus-linux case study. In 2023 IEEE 13th Annual Computing and Communication Workshop and Conference (CCWC), pages 1126–1131.
Shah, J. A. and Dubaria, D. (2019). Netdevops: A new era towards networking devops. In 2019 IEEE 10th Annual Ubiquitous Computing, Electronics Mobile Communication Conference (UEMCON), pages 0775–0779.
Shao, M., Liu, Z., Han, W., Gao, C., Liu, J., and Liao, Q. (2025). Intellitopo: An iac generation service for industrial network topology construction. In 2025 40th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering (ASE), pages 3605–3615.
Sicoe, A.-F., Botez, R., Ivanciu, I.-A., and Dobrota, V. (2022). Fully automated testbed of cisco virtual routers in cloud based environments. In 2022 IEEE International Black Sea Conference on Communications and Networking (BlackSeaCom), pages 49–53.
Verma, P. C., Atulkar, M., and Chouhan, R. K. (2024). Performance comparison of ryu controller in different sdn-enabled data center topologies. In 2024 Intl. Conference on Control, Computing, Communication and Materials (ICCCCM), pages 93–98.
Bodnar, L., Bodnar, M., Shulakova, K., Vasylenko, O., Siemens, E., Tsarov, R., Yavorska, O., and Tyurikova, O. (2024). Advanced techniques for iac: Enhancing automation and optimization in cloud-based infrastructure management. In Proceedings of Internatilnal Conference on Applied Innovation in IT, volume 12, pages 19–25. Anhalt University of Applied Sciences.
Dsilva, N., Karunakaran, V., Autenrieth, A., Elbers, J.-P., and Bauschert, T. (2025). Network automation using netdevops in optical networks. In 2025 International Conference on Optical Network Design and Modeling (ONDM), pages 1–3.
Elradi, M. D. (2023). Ansible: A reliable tool for automation. Electrical and Computer Engineering Studies, 2(1):1–11.
Huang, J., Li, W., Li, Q., Zhang, T., Dong, P., and Wang, J. (2020). Tuning high flow concurrency for mptcp in data center networks. Journal of Cloud Computing, 9(1):13.
Lima, V., Callado, A., Bonfim, M., and Gonçalves, E. (2026). Comparative performance analysis of iac tools for deploying containerized sdn topologies in cloud environments. In Anais do XLIV Simpósio Brasileiro de Redes de Computadores e Sistemas Distribuídos, pages 463–476, Porto Alegre, RS, Brasil. SBC.
Morris, K. (2020). Infrastructure as code. O’Reilly Media.
Qiu, Y., Kon, P. T. J., Xing, J., Huang, Y., Liu, H., Wang, X., Huang, P., Chowdhury, M., and Chen, A. (2023). Simplifying cloud management with cloudless computing. In Proceedings of the 22nd ACM Workshop on Hot Topics in Networks, HotNets ’23, page 95–101, New York, NY, USA. Association for Computing Machinery.
Salazar-Chacón, G. and Parra, D. M. (2023). Infrastructure-as-code in open-networking: Git, ansible, and cumulus-linux case study. In 2023 IEEE 13th Annual Computing and Communication Workshop and Conference (CCWC), pages 1126–1131.
Shah, J. A. and Dubaria, D. (2019). Netdevops: A new era towards networking devops. In 2019 IEEE 10th Annual Ubiquitous Computing, Electronics Mobile Communication Conference (UEMCON), pages 0775–0779.
Shao, M., Liu, Z., Han, W., Gao, C., Liu, J., and Liao, Q. (2025). Intellitopo: An iac generation service for industrial network topology construction. In 2025 40th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering (ASE), pages 3605–3615.
Sicoe, A.-F., Botez, R., Ivanciu, I.-A., and Dobrota, V. (2022). Fully automated testbed of cisco virtual routers in cloud based environments. In 2022 IEEE International Black Sea Conference on Communications and Networking (BlackSeaCom), pages 49–53.
Verma, P. C., Atulkar, M., and Chouhan, R. K. (2024). Performance comparison of ryu controller in different sdn-enabled data center topologies. In 2024 Intl. Conference on Control, Computing, Communication and Materials (ICCCCM), pages 93–98.
Publicado
19/07/2026
Como Citar
LIMA, Vitor Reiel M.; CALLADO, Arthur C.; BONFIM, Michel S..
Comparative Assessment of Multiple IaC Tools for Provisioning Emulated SDN Topologies in Cloud Environments. In: SEMINÁRIO INTEGRADO DE SOFTWARE E HARDWARE (SEMISH), 53. , 2026, Gramado/RS.
Anais [...].
Porto Alegre: Sociedade Brasileira de Computação,
2026
.
p. 227-238.
ISSN 2595-6205.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5753/semish.2026.23670.
