OpenStack Networking is a service which provides Networking-as-a-Service functionality in OpenStack. It can be configured for advanced virtual network topologies, such as per-tenant private networks and more. It is able to virtualize and manage both Layer 2 (logical) and Layer 3 (network) of the OSI network model. Each tenant has a virtual neutron router with one or more private networks, which can communicate with the outside world. This allows full routing isolation for each tenant private network. OpenStack Networking functions can be performed using either the dashboard or the command line interface.

OpenStack Networking uses namespaces (netns), which virtualize access to network resources, giving each group of processes the network access it requires. Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform includes a custom Red Hat Enterprise Linux kernel that supports the use of network namespaces.

To check if you have the required netns enabled kernel installed, you can install the package iproute-2.6.32-130.el6ost.netns.2.x86_64 and run the command:

# ip netns

Compute networking accepts networking tasks such as setting up bridging interfaces or changing iptables rules from the queue and performs them to manipulate the network. It is able to virtualize and manage simple Layer 3 virtualization. When you deploy OpenStack using nova-network, all network related commands must be done using the command line interface.