Solaris network virtualization and resource control is a set of features originally developed by Sun Microsystems as the OpenSolaris Crossbow umbrella project, providing an internal network virtualization and quality of service framework within the Solaris Operating System.
By combining VNICs with features such as exclusive IP zones or the Sun xVM hypervisor, system administrators can run applications on separate virtual machines to improve performance and provide security.
The Crossbow resource control features enable increased system efficiency and the ability to limit the amount of bandwidth consumed by a process or virtual machine.
This section briefly describes the main features of the Crossbow network virtualization and resource control project.
Moreover, you can configure a virtual machine, such as an exclusive IP zone or xVM domain on top of a VNIC.
The Crossbow project modifies this layer with several new features, including the MAC client interface.
The Crossbow project features provide bandwidth management and flow control on a per VNIC basis.
Traffic through each VNIC can be classified and separated into individual flows, based on port number, destination IP address, and other parameters.