DataTAG overview

3 February 2003Paolo Moroni (Slide 2) APM meeting - Barcelona Summary  Why DataTAG?  DataTAG project  Test-bed extensions  General information  Open DataTAG  Network map  (some) Research topics  (a lot of) Issues  Conclusion and acknowledgements

3 February 2003Paolo Moroni (Slide 3) APM meeting - Barcelona Background for DataTAG  High-energy physicists are building the LHC (start-up in 2007?) at CERN: an unprecedented amount of data will have to be analyzed and CERN alone will not have enough computing resources  The planned computing model is distributed geographically (GRID)  The EU-DataGrid project is addressing the middleware problem  Reliable, advanced networking is needed underneath  At least part of the GRID traffic will not look like any IP commodity traffic now  A lot of bandwidth will be necessary, but it won’t be enough

3 February 2003Paolo Moroni (Slide 4) APM meeting - Barcelona Addressing the problem  Buy (a lot of) bandwidth  Buy (expensive) network equipment  Address security issues without compromising performance (firewalls)  Tune some more or less obvious TCP parameter  Design the network for reliability and performance  Plan for interconnection with key research networks

3 February 2003Paolo Moroni (Slide 5) APM meeting - Barcelona Why network research?  Need to enhance data transport protocols (TCP)  Need to measure the perceived application performance (end-to-end)  Need to try the GRID software in a WAN environment and at very high speed (Gigabit or more)  Need to test the compatibility between EU and US GRIDs (middleware integration)  Need to test network technology with enough speed and enough features to support the planned GRID workload (end-to-end inter-domain QoS)  Consistent risk of breaking something: production networks can help with some (but not all) the above needs

3 February 2003Paolo Moroni (Slide 6) APM meeting - Barcelona DataTAG project  Full project title: “Research and technological development for a transatlantic GRID”  IST project (EU funded), supported by the NSF and the DoE (Caltech)  Partners: PPARC (UK), INRIA (FR), University of Amsterdam (NL), INFN (IT) and CERN (CH)  Researchers also from CalTech, SLAC and Canada  Test-bed kernel: transatlantic STM-16 (T- systems) between Geneva (CERN) and Chicago (StarLight), with interconnected workstations at each side

3 February 2003Paolo Moroni (Slide 7) APM meeting - Barcelona Test-bed extensions  Amsterdam-Geneva (SARA-CERN): STM-64 from SURFnet (Global Crossing)  Lyon-Geneva: STM-16 from VTHD (France Telecom)  CH backup access STM-16 to GEANT (COLT)  Chicago-Sunnyvale: STM-64 from TeraGrid (Level3)  Back-to-back GbE to Canarie in Chicago  Back-to-back 10GbE to TeraGrid and Abilene in Chicago

3 February 2003Paolo Moroni (Slide 8) APM meeting - Barcelona General information  2-years project: 2002 and 2003  Dedicated staff (recruited on project budget)  Part-time staff, shared with other activities  Open to cooperate with other projects: EU- DataGrid, GEANT, Abilene, TeraGrid, NetherLight, etc.  Typical EU work package structure: quarterly reports, deliverables at fixed deadlines, periodic reviews by external inspectors. Very formal, heavy and structured framework, but effective to avoid project drifting, delays and wastes

3 February 2003Paolo Moroni (Slide 9) APM meeting - Barcelona Open DataTAG  DataTAG is open to cooperate with other research projects  Proposals for additional activity on the DataTAG test-bed are welcome  One requirement: ongoing work must not be affected (no overbooking)  The current schedule is already relatively busy (both EU and US activities)

3 February 2003Paolo Moroni (Slide 10) APM meeting - Barcelona R04gva-Cisco7606 R04chi-Cisco7609 Stm16(DTag) R05chi-JuniperM10 R06chi-Alcatel7770 R05gva-JuniperM10 R06gva-Alcatel7770 Cernh4-Cisco7609 ar3-chicago -Cisco7606 Stm4(DTag) Cernh7-Cisco7609 SURFNET Stm16(Colt) backup+projects 1GE Extreme Summit1i 1GE W01gva w02gva w05gva w06gva 4x1GE W03gva w04gva 1GE 2x1GE 1GE W01chi w02chi w03chi w04chi w05chi w06chi V10chi v11chi v12chi v13chi 2x1GE 1GE Extreme Summit5i 4x1GE 10x1GE 8x1GE 2x1GE 1GE 10GE Teragrid JuniperT640 GEANT 1GE VTHD/INRIA Stm16 (FranceTelecom) 2x1GE DataTAG CERN External Network Chicago Geneva 2x1GE 1GE Cisco5505-management 2x1GE ONS15454 Alcatel 1670 CANARIE SURFNET ONS x1GE Stm16(GC) Cisco2950-management 1GE SWITCH Stm16(Swisscom) GARR/CNAF ABILENE SUNNYVALE Stm64(L3) 10GE - last update: Vlan4 Vlan5 Vlan7 DataTAG Network map

3 February 2003Paolo Moroni (Slide 11) APM meeting - Barcelona R04gva R04chi R05chi R06chi R05gva R06gva Cernh4 ar3-chicago Cernh7 SURFNET W01gva w02gva w05gva w06gva W03gva w04gva W01chi w02chi w03chi w04chi w05chi w06chi V10chi v11chi v12chi v13chi Teragrid JuniperT640 GEANT VTHD/INRIA DataTAG CERN External Network Chicago Geneva Cisco5505-management CANARIE SURFNET Cisco2950-management SWITCH GARR/CNAF ABILENE SUNNYVALE - last update: DataTAG Routing map / / / /27 Management addresses and path to reach them from the internet Path between Sunnyvale and the PC farm in Geneva Path between the OC farms in Chicago and Geneva Path of the CCC tunnel from CNAF Datatag testbed addresses

3 February 2003Paolo Moroni (Slide 12) APM meeting - Barcelona (some) Research topics (I)  Linux kernel tuning for high performance: for example, 8 Terabytes in 24 hours, memory-to- memory (achieved by S. Ravot, CalTech)  Bulk file transfer (Terabyte disk-to-disk, at 2 Gbps, achieved by Canadian researchers between TRIUMF and CERN)  TCP stack improvements (things get worse with longer RTT)  Application-level performance measurement  GRID middleware interoperability between EU and US

3 February 2003Paolo Moroni (Slide 13) APM meeting - Barcelona (some) Research topics (II)  10 Gb tests (10GbE and transatlantic link upgrade, tentatively in September 2003) at layer 2 and layer 3  Multi-vendor equipment (Alcatel 1670 and 7770, Cisco 760x, Juniper M10, Extreme Summit switches)  QoS tests, advanced reservation  Optical networking: validation of equipment  Direct access (hardware and software) to the equipment is essential for most activities

3 February 2003Paolo Moroni (Slide 14) APM meeting - Barcelona Issues (I)  Electrical power in Chicago (now fixed)  Broken network hardware (mainly 10 GbE cards, but not only)  Broken or hung PCs  Router interfaces disabled  Never enough workstations available for testing  Reservation software: never sophisticated enough  Network topology: each research group has different requirements  Alcatel 1670: needs STM-16 reconfiguration

3 February 2003Paolo Moroni (Slide 15) APM meeting - Barcelona Issues (II)  Cisco 760x components (un)availability  Demo workshops (iGRID2002, SC2002, …): nice to see, but organizational nightmares  KPNQwest collapse (re-procurement via T- systems)  Routing: interconnections with production networks, with external test networks, even with commodity Internet, plus management access everywhere  Furthermore, routing is open for experiments (research groups require enabled access to the routers)

3 February 2003Paolo Moroni (Slide 16) APM meeting - Barcelona Issues (III)  A lot of enthusiasm and interest, unfortunately not always supported by adequate planning  When adequate planning is there, it is ignored (because of the enthusiasm, of course)  Network planning is not straightforward: mix between test and production  Partners coordination is even less straightforward: mix of shared and private resources

3 February 2003Paolo Moroni (Slide 17) APM meeting - Barcelona Issues (IV)  Some JunOS features were discovered in the hard way  Same for some IOS “features”  DNS, security, access control, management servers, VLANs, WWW site, IP addressing (>100 addresses assigned), etc.: all need planning, work and maintenance  PoP management (run out of rack space) + installation issues (mainly, but not only, Alcatel)  OOB access in Chicago, to recover from configuration mistakes (this works only sometimes with PCs)

3 February 2003Paolo Moroni (Slide 18) APM meeting - Barcelona Conclusion and acknowledgements Conclusion and acknowledgements  DataTAG is for testing what it would be often useful to do and may not be done because it is too risky, or too expensive, or too complicated, or simply because you cannot afford a test laboratory  DataTAG is open to external collaborations, as far as it is allowed by the current test-bed workload  Many thanks to DANTE/GEANT and DoE/CalTech, who are actively supporting the project

Thank you