Abstract—Existing network testbeds face a critical gap; federated platforms such as GENI and Fed4FIRE provide multi-user access but lack high-capacity, programmable data planes. In contrast, specialized P4 testbeds offer programmability but limited concurrent user support. This paper addresses this gap by presenting a 100 Gbps programmable multi-user testbed for Research and Education Networks in Southeast Asia. The main contribution is integrating Programmable P4 switches, SDN control, and automated orchestration into a shared platform accessible via existing REN infrastructure. This enables multiple universities to conduct concurrent experiments without deploying local high-capacity hardware. Validation demonstrated near line-rate aggregate throughput, sub-millisecond latency, below 3% fairness variance across concurrent users, and minimal programmability overhead. Automation reduced deployment time by over 85%. The testbed provides operational access to SOI Asia partners, combining performance comparable to FABRIC with accessibility tailored to resource-constrained regional institutions.

Keywords—programmable networks, P4, Software-Defined Networking (SDN), multi-user testbed, high-capacity networking, network slicing, Research and Education Networks (RENs), SOI Asia


Cite: Galih Nugraha Nurkahfi, Achmad Husni Thamrin, Nasrullah Armi, Eueung Mulyana, and Nana Rachmana Syambas, “Design and Implementation of a Programmable High-Capacity Multi-user Network Testbed for SOI Asia Research and Education Partners," Journal of Communications, vol. 21, no. 2, pp. 294-308, 2026.


Copyright © 2026 by the authors. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited (CC BY 4.0).