Kathará – lightweight network emulation system

Kathará is a lightweight network emulation system based on Docker containers.

It can be helpful in showing interactive demos/lessons, testing production networks in a sandbox environment, or developing new network protocols.

Each network device is emulated by a container. Virtual network devices are interconnected by virtual L2 LANs.

This is free and open source software.

Features include:

• Each container can potentially run a different Docker image.
• Built-in images include Quagga, FRRouting, Bind, P4, OpenVSwitch, and more, but you can also use your own container images.
• Simplifies the creation of complex networks using the concept of network scenario: a directory containing a file with the network topology, and, for each device, files and folders containing the configuration of that device.
• Emulates network scenarios using either Docker or Kubernetes as backend virtualization system.
• Cross-platform support – runs under Linux (x86_64 and ARM64), macOS (x86_64 and ARM64), and Windows (x86_64 and ARM64).

Website: github.com/KatharaFramework/Kathara
Support:
Developer: Kathará developers
License: GNU General Public License v3.0

Kathará is written in Python. Learn Python with our recommended free books and free tutorials.

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