Advanced research and education networking in the United States: the Internet2 experience Heather Boyles Director, Member and Partner Relations Internet2 CERNET Annual Conference Dalian, China 4 November 2005

The US context Top research universities are mix of private and publicly (state government)-funded No US national government direct operational funding to universities –Significant US national government research funding to universities No US national government-funded university network –Specific agencies run networks to support science – Dept. of Energy’s ESnet, NASA networks

Internet2 history Formed in 1996 by 34 universities Not-for-profit, membership organization Universities self-selected –No requirement that all US universities join

Internet2 Mission Develop and deploy advanced network applications and technologies, accelerating the creation of tomorrow’s Internet Internet2 Goals Enable new generation of applications Re-create leading edge R&E network capability Transfer technology and experience to the global production Internet

Internet2 today US-based membership organization: –207 regular University members –66 Corporate members –42 Affiliate members US National Research and Education Network –Internet2 Abilene Backbone Network –State, regional, metropolitan networks connecting campuses International partnerships: –46 partnerships representing over 75 countries

How does Internet2 work? Partnerships and collaborations –Universities, research centers, industry, government Bringing a variety of resources (money, human, facilities) Volunteer work of individuals in those organizations –Working groups; workshop instructors/leaders; speakers at technical meetings Pooled resources (member dues, grants) fund individuals –NSF Middleware Initiative example Staff funded by member dues –Facilitate, coordinate, support

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Internet2 Abilene backbone network

Next generation of US research and education network infrastructure: hybrid of packet and circuit capabilities

Community-owned network infrastructure Move from buying telecom services to owning/leasing fiber, optical equipment Happening at campus, metropolitan, state, regional and national levels in the US Example on national level: National LambdaRail initiative –Nationwide, dark fiber-based facility –Build multiple networks –Internet2 and several state/regional networks are owners

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Internet2 middleware work Focus: enabling inter-institutional collaboration –Build on campus identity management and authentication mechanisms –Put in place inter-institutional or national infrastructure for those campuses to talk to each other Example: Shibboleth architecture and software tool

Middleware infrastructure and services InCommon federation: –National authentication and authorization infrastructure –US universities (Internet2 members) join the federation, agree to trust each others’ own campus authentication mechanisms Much like network infrastructure, how does this interconnect with other countries’ AAIs

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Security Focus: –Securing network infrastructure –Security tools for advanced networking community Security at “line speed” – do no harm to high- performance networking applications –Rethinking the problem New network technologies, authentication and authorization infrastructure to address fundamental security problems of the network

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End-to-end Performance Performance Measurement and Monitoring Infrastructure –Focus: help users identify where the performance problem is and who can help them fix it –PerfSONAR Workshops –Provide hands-on experience with installing and using perfSONAR infrastructure International Collaboration –End-to-end means global scale: interoperable, interconnecting performance measurement and monitoring infrastructure

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Applications: collaboration infrastructure High-performance video/audio collaboration –Ubiquitous H.323-based multipoint video- conferencing –SIP-based solutions High definition video streaming –DV over IP – DVTS –HD video over IP – Research Channel WG

Applications: working with user communities Arts and Humanities –Performing arts: demand high-quality audio and video over the network Health Sciences –Security and privacy issues demand middleware infrastructure Science and Engineering –High-end users demand new networking architectures: bandwidth, latency

Supporting leading- edge research and education Photo: OptIPuter Photo: CERN Photo: Jason Project

Questions?