Transcript Slide 1

National LambdaRail
A Fiber-based Research Infrastructure
John Silvester
NL
R
light the future
Vice-Provost for Scholarly Technology
University of Southern California
Chair of the CENIC Board
NLR Board Member
Terena Networking Conference TNC 2004
Rhodes, Greece
June 08th, 2004
Two Drivers for NLR
I need more bandwidth for research!
– High-end science needs Terabits
– Predictable quality interconnect
– Immersive presence and the
“bit rate of reality, 40Gbps” Tom Holman (USC)
I need a breakable network for research!
– New protocols
– New devices
– New architectures
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NLR - Origins
CENIC (Corporation for Network Initiatives in California)
built out a multi-wavelength network based on leased dark
fiber (CalREN – www.cenic.org )
– to support multiple networks (commodity, high performance research,
experimental)
– to take advantage of depressed market
Market opportunity could be extended to National footprint
Nationwide interest in availability of a large scale network to
allow for support of high end scientific applications, network
research and experimentation
CISCO interest in a large scale lab for network researchers
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NLR Infrastructure
Not a single network but a set of facilities, capabilities
and services to build both experimental and production
networks at various layers, allowing members to
acquire dedicated (project specific) facilities or shared
(community specific) facilities as appropriate.
Most of the focus so far has been on the
massive production DWDM network build
out but that would change soon to focus on
building the experimental networks
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NLR – Basic Structure
Dark Fiber National footprint
Serves network research and very high-end
experimental and research applications
4 - 10GB Wavelengths initially
Capable of 40 10Gb wavelengths at build-out
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NLR – Financial Structure
Non-profit corporation
Cover costs over a 5 year window
Participation requires a commitment of $5M (US)
over 5 years
Initial build is a sparse network with 4 wavelengths
lit
Ability to add wavelengths (up to 40) at incremental
cost
NLR supports Production and Experimental
(breakable) infrastructures at each layer (1,2, and 3)
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Current NLR Participants
Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California (CENIC)
Pacific Northwest GigaPOP (PNWGP)
Carnegie Mellon-Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center
Duke (representing a coalition of North Carolina universities)
Mid-Atlantic Terascale Partnership
Cisco Systems
Internet2
Florida LambdaRail
Georgia Institute of Technology
Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC)
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Lone Star Education and Research Network (LEARN) - Texas
Cornell University – New York
Louisiana Board of Regents
University of New Mexico
ONENet (Oklahoma)
Southeastern Universities Research Association (SURA)
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Production DWDM Network
1st pair Fiber

Optical packet
switching
architecture


Experimental L1-3
Networks
Production Switched
Ethernet
ETF distributed
backplane
Production Routed IP
Network
Production L23 Networks
Prod. L3
Networks

XCP reference
implementation
Exp. L3
Networks

Experimental
L2-3 Networks
Deterministic
UltraLight
access

New routing
protocols
Infrastructure

AUP-free
Internet service
Internet BGP
visibility
Use Examples
NLR - Potential Use Examples
Additional
Fiber Pairs
Adapted from: Network and computing research infrastructure: back to the future, Robert J. Aiken, Javad
Boroumand, Stephen Wolff, Communications of the ACM,Volume 47, Number 1 (2004), Pages 93-98
Architecture and Initial Configuration
Obtained fiber (initial build from Level 3, second
stage includes other providers) – 20 year IRU’s
Base NLR lambdas operated at 10 Gbps -- up to 40
lambdas
Lit with Cisco gear
Initial deployment is 4 10 Gig wavelengths
–
–
–
–
One 10 Gig layer three
One 81Gig layer two
One dedicated to Internet2 HOPI
One hot spare
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NLR – Optical Infrastructure - Phase 1
Seattle
Portland
Boise
Sunnyvale
Chicago
Ogden
Denver
Clev
Pitts
KC
Wash DC
Raleigh
LA
San Diego
NLR
Route
Atlanta
Jacksonville
NLR
MetaPOP
NLR Regen or
OADM
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Seattle
NLR Phase 1 - Installation Schedule
Will Complete Aug 2004
Chicago
Boise
Portland
Ogden
Cleveland
Denver
Kansas
StarLight
Pitts
Sunnyvale
Wash DC
15808 Terminal
Los
Angeles
15808 Regen (or
Terminal)
Raleigh
15808 OADM
15454 Terminal
15808 LH System
San Diego
15808 ELH System
Atlanta
15454 Metro System
CENIC 15808 LH System
Jacksonville
NLR Phase 2 – the Southern Route
Seattle
Clev
Chicago
Denver
Sunnyvale
Pitts
New York
KC
Wash DC
Raleigh
LA
Phoenix
Albuq.
Tulsa
San Diego
Atlanta
Dallas
AT&T
LEVEL 3
QWEST
WILTEL
Jacksonville
El Paso Las Cruces
Pensacola
San Ant.
Houston Baton
Rouge
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NLR- Business Plan
What are the services?
– Lambdas
– GigE channels (1G, 10G)
How to price additional lambdas? For
members and non-members.
How to handle short term usage of resources?
What about international collaborations?
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Current Inquiries
For dedicated waves
For long term GE services
For long tem 10 GE services
For short term waves and channels
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How does NLR fit with Internet2?
Internet2 and NLR are at heart the same
community, many of the same faces, same core
goals
Internet2 is an NLR founding member ($10M)
Key distinction is that NLR has OWNED
infrastructure to enable MULTIPLE networks
and national research projects.
Hybrid Optical & Packet Infrastructure (HOPI)
– Abilene backbone & NLR lambdas
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NLR - Summary
Interesting new R&E owned US National Fiber
Infrastructure
Parts are now operational at 4  10GE
Phase one to be completed by end of summer
Distribution to campuses a challenge – but many
regional projects are underway
May still be a challenge as to how to distribute on
campus
Most interesting is how the demand will grow –
check back next year!!
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For More Information
NLR: www.nlr.net
Speaker: [email protected]
Acknowledgements
NL
R
light the future
Robert J. Aiken
Javad Boroumand
Steve Corbato
Debbie Montano
Tom West