The PlanetLab Consortium is a collection of academic, industrial, and government institutions cooperating to support and enhance the PlanetLab overlay network. It is responsible for overseeing the long-term growth of PlanetLab's hardware infrastructure; designing and evolving its software architecture; providing day-to-day operational support; and defining policies that govern appropriate use.

Institutions join the Consortium by signing a membership agreement and connecting two or more nodes to the PlanetLab infrastructure. Individuals that want to use PlanetLab should arrange to do so through their home institution.

The PlanetLab Consortium is managed by Princeton University, the University of California at Berkeley, and the University of Washington. Princeton currently hosts the Consortium. Larry Peterson currently serves as the Consortium's Director. A Governance Document describes how the Consortium is organized. This page highlights the main points.

Steering Committee

A Steering Committee sets the overall policy and provides strategic guidance and review of the Consortium's activities. The Steering Committee currently includes the following members:

• Tom Anderson, University of Washington (chair)
• Mic Bowman, Intel
• Jon Crowcroft, Cambridge University
• Serge Fdida, UPMC (OneLab Project)
• Scott Shenker, University of California at Berkeley
• Rick McGeer, HP Labs
• Larry Peterson, Princeton University
• Timothy Roscoe, ETH Zürich

Staff

The Consortium employs a support staff that is responsible for providing operational stability of the PlanetLab infrastructure; developing, hardening, and deploying software that enables the research community to contribute to PlanetLab; pushing the PlanetLab architecture with an eye towards longevity; and promoting continued growth of the PlanetLab infrastructure and community. The staff includes:

• Faiyaz Ahmed
• Andy Bavier
• Sapan Bhatia
• Marc Fiuczynski
• Scott Karlin
• Tony Mack
• Reid Moran
• Chin-Kai Ong
• KyoungSoo Park
• Stephen Soltesz

Policies

The PlanetLab Consortium currently publishes three policy documents. Institutions that join PlanetLab agree to abide by these policies.

• Hosting a Node: This documents outlines the responsibilities of a site that hosts PlanetLab nodes. All Consortium members (except at the Sponsor level) are expected to host PlanetLab nodes.
• Acceptable Use Policy: This document outlines permitted uses of PlanetLab, and the role each site plays in enforcing these rules.
• Mission and Goals: This document is a statement of the Consortium's mission and goals. It is an evolving document that communicate's the Steering Committee's vision for PlanetLab to the membership.

Membership

The Consortium includes five membership levels, as summarized below. See the Governance Document for full details.

• Charter ($300k annual dues)
  • Permanent seat on Steering Committee.
  • Unlimited number of slices.
  • Access to PlanetLab events, research papers, and working groups.
• Full ($75k annual dues)
  • Rotating seat on Steering Committee.
  • 10 slices.
  • Access to PlanetLab events, research papers, and working groups.
• Associate ($25k annual dues)
  • 2 slices.
  • Access to PlanetLab events, research papers, and working groups.
• Sponsor ($10k annual dues)
  • Access to PlanetLab events and research papers.
• Academic (no annual dues)
  • Seat on Steering Committee by invitation.
  • 10 slices.
  • Access to PlanetLab events, research papers, and working groups.

Current corporate members include:

• Intel, Charter
• Hewlett Packard, Charter
• Google, Full
• AT&T, Associate
• France Telecom, Associate
• AT Corporation, Associate
• DoCoMo Communications Laboratories USA, Associate
• Lucent - Bell Labs, Associate
• NEC Laboratories, Associate
• Telecom Italia, Associate

The full list of institutions participating in Planetlab, including Academic institutions, can be found here. PlanetLab also receives support from the National Science Foundation and DARPA

Working Groups

The Consortium has established a set of working groups that carry on the technical work of the Consortium. Individuals from any member institution are encouraged to participate in one or more of these working groups. Click here for information about the currently active working groups.

Additional Information

If you have additional questions about the PlanetLab Consortium, please send mail to info@planet-lab.org.