1. Internet2 End-to-End Performance Initiative
Eric L. Boyd
Director of Performance Architecture and Technologies
Internet2

2. Network support of Science
Science is a global community
Networks links scientists
Collaborative research occurs across network boundaries
For the scientist, the value of the network is the achieved network performance
Scientists should not have to focus on the network; good end-to-end performance should be a given

3. Achieving Good End-to-End Performance
Internet2 consists of:
Campuses
Regional networks
Internet2 backbone network
Our members care about connecting with:
Other members
Government labs & networks
International partners
The Internet2 community cares about making all of this work

4. Identifying the Problem
Hey, this is not working right!
Others are
getting in ok
Not our problem
Applications
Developer
Applications
Developer
LAN
Administrator
LAN
Administrator
Talk to the other guys
System
Administrator
Everything is
AOK
System
Administrator
Campus
Networking
Campus
Networking
The computer
Is working OK
No other
complaints
Looks fine
Gigapop
Gigapop
All the lights
are green
How do you solve
a problem along a path?
Backbone
We don’t see
anything wrong
The network is lightly loaded

5. Status Quo Performance is excellent across backbone networks
Performance is a problem end-to-end
Problems are concentrated towards the edge and in network transitions
We need to:
Diagnose: Understand limits of performance
Address: Work with members and application communities to address those performance issues

6. Vision: Performance Information is …
Available
People can find it (Discovery)
“Community of trust” allows access across administrative domain boundaries (AA)
Ubiquitous
Widely deployed (Paths of interest covered)
Reliable (Consistently configured correctly)
Valuable
Actionable (Analysis suggests course of action)
Automatable (Applications act on data)

7. Getting There: Build & Empower the Community
Decouple the Problem Space:
Analysis and Visualization
Performance Data Sharing
Performance Data Generation
Grow the Footprint:
Clean APIs and protocols between each layer
Widespread deployment of measurement infrastructure
Widespread deployment of common performance measurement tools

8. Result: No more mystery …
Increase network awareness
Set user expectations accurately
Reduce diagnostic costs
Performance problems noticed early
Performance problems addressed efficiently
Network engineers can see & act outside their turf
Transform application design
Incorporate network intuition into application behavior

9. From the scientist’s perspective
Discover additional monitoring resources
Authenticate locally
Authorized to use remote network resources to a limited extent
Acquire performance monitoring data from remote sites via standard protocol
Innovate where needed
Customize the analysis and visualization

10. e-VLBI Network

11. eVLBI Result
Use of integrated network monitoring helped to enable identification of bottleneck (hardware fault)
Automated monitoring allowed view of network throughput variation over time
Highlights route changes, network outages
Automated monitoring also helps to highlight any throughput issues at end points:
E.g. Network Interface Card failures, Untuned TCP Stacks
Integrated monitoring provides overall view of network behavior at a glance

12. Internet2 End-to-End Performance Initiative (E2Epi)
Includes:
Internet2 staff
Internet2 members
Federal partners
International partners
Building:
Performance monitoring tools
Performance middleware frameworks
Performance improvement tools

13. Support for E2Epi Funded out of network revenues Partnerships Grants
Leveraging GÉANT2, ESnet, and RNP resources through consortium leadership
Grants
NSF SGER - Leveraging Internet2 Facilities for the Network Research Community
NSF SGER2 - Network Measurement for International Connections
NSF BTG - Bridging the Gap: End-to-End Networking for Landmark Applications
NLM Pilot - User Experience with the High Performance Internet Infrastructure: Critical Incidents of Success and Failure
NLM NDT - Enhancing the Web 100-based Network Diagnostic Tool

14. Performance Tools Diagnosis Solutions Throughput (BWCTL)
One-Way Delay (OWAMP)
Top 10 Problems in First Mile (NDT)
Solutions
Alternate congestion control (VFER)
Partition the session (Phoebus)

15. Network Performance Measurement Workshops
Example Course Materials:
Goals:
Grow installed base of BWCTL/Iperf, OWAMP, and NDT at GigaPoP and regional campuses.
Begin integration into IT support processes.
Create an installed base for perfSONAR deployment.
Teach Internet2 community to use performance tools.

16. What is perfSONAR? Performance Middleware
perfSONAR is an international consortium in which Internet2 is a founder and leading participant
perfSONAR is a set of protocol standards for interoperability between measurement and monitoring systems
perfSONAR is a set of open source web services that can be mixed-and-matched and extended to create a performance monitoring framework

17. perfSONAR Design Goals
Standards-based
Modular
Decentralized
Locally controlled
Open Source
Extensible
Applicable to multiple generations of network monitoring systems
Grows “beyond our control”
Customized for individual science disciplines

18. perfSONAR Integrates Network measurement tools
Network measurement archives
Discovery
Authentication and authorization
Data manipulation
Resource protection
Topology

19. perfSONAR Credits perfSONAR is a joint effort: GÉANT2 JRA1 includes:
ESnet
GÉANT2 JRA1
Internet2
RNP
ESnet includes:
ESnet/LBL staff
Fermilab
Internet2 includes:
University of Delaware
Georgia Tech
SLAC
Internet2 staff
GÉANT2 JRA1 includes:
Arnes
Belnet
Carnet
Cesnet
CYNet
DANTE
DFN
FCCN
GRNet
GARR
ISTF
PSNC
Nordunet (Uninett)
Renater
RedIRIS
Surfnet
SWITCH

20. perfSONAR Adoption R&E Networks Application Communities
Internet2
ESnet
GÉANT2
European NRENs
RNP
Application Communities
LHC
GLORIAD Distributed Virtual NOC
Roll-out to other application communities in 2007
Distributed Development
Individual projects (10 before first release) write components that integrate into the overall framework
Individual communities (5 before first release) write their own analysis and visualization software

21. More Information Eric Boyd http://e2epi.internet2.edu/