1. Internet2 Network of the Future
Steve Corbató
Director, Backbone Network Infrastructure
Pfizer Internet2 Day
11 January 2002
This is a general overview presentation about Internet2. Internet2 is a consortium, led by US universities, which is recreating the partnership among academia, industry and government that fostered today’s Internet in its infancy.

2. Internet2 Network of the Future
Current state of Abilene
Evolution of optical networking
Next phase of Abilene
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3. Abilene focus Goals Advanced service efforts
Enabling innovative applications and advanced services not possible over the commercial Internet
Backbone & regional infrastructure provides a vital substrate for the continuing culture of Internet advancement in the university/corporate research sector
Advanced service efforts
Multicast
IPv6
QoS
Measurement
Security
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4. Abilene background & milestones
Abilene is a UCAID project in partnership with
Qwest Communications (SONET & DWDM service)
Nortel Networks (SONET kit)
Cisco Systems (routers)
Indiana University (network operations)
ITECs in North Carolina and Ohio (test and evaluation)
Timeline
Apr 1998: Project announced at White House
Jan 1999: Production status for network
Oct 1999: IP version of HDTV (215 Mbps) over Abilene
Apr 2001: First state education network added
Jun 2001: Participation reaches all 50 states & D.C.
Nov 2001: Raw HDTV/IP (1.5 Gbps) over Abilene
Partnerships are the foundation of how the Internet developed and they are also a part of the foundation of Internet2.
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5. Abilene – January, 2002 IP-over-SONET (OC-48c) backbone
53 direct connections
3 OC-48c connections - NCNI will be the 4th
1 Gigabit Ethernet trial - MREN
23 will connect via at least OC-12c (622 Mbps) by 1Q02
207 participants – research universities & labs
All 50 states, District of Columbia, & Puerto Rico
15 regional GigaPoPs support ~70% of participants
Expanded access
37 sponsored participants
18 state education networks (SEGPs)
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7. Growth in corporate participation
13 corporate research sites either on now or pending
Alcatel/USA
Aventis
Boeing Phantom Works
Ford Research
Fujitsu Labs of America
IBM Research (2 sites)
Johnson & Johnson Research (3 sites)
Microsoft Research
Motorola Labs
Pfizer
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9. International connectivity
Transoceanic R&E bandwidths growing!
Key international exchange points facilitated by Internet2 membership and the U.S. scientific community
STARTAP & STAR LIGHT – Chicago
Pacific Wave – Seattle
Abilene now has GigE connectivity to both SL and P/WAVE
AMPATH – Miami
New York City – GigE/10GigE EP under development
CA*NET3: Seattle, Chicago, and New York
CUDI: CENIC and Univ. of Texas at El Paso
International transit service
Collaboration with CA*NET3 and STARTAP
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10. Abilene International Peering and International Transit Network (ITN)
STTL
CA*net3, (AARnet)
APAN/TransPAC, Ca*net3, CERN, CERnet, IUCC, NORDUnet, RENATER, REUNA2, SURFnet, SingAREN, SINET, TAnet2 , (ANSP, HARnet?)
OC12
NYCM
TEN-155*,
JANET,
NORDUnet, CA*net3
(HEAnet)
BELnet
SNVA
GEMNET,
(SINET)
13+ peers of MoU partners
AmPATH
STAR TAP ITN…Abilene service component
LOSA
SingAREN, SINET
OC3-12
AmPATH
(REUNA2, RNP2, RETINA?)
CALREN2
CUDI
UT El Paso
(CUDI)
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* ARNES, BELNET, CESnet, DFN, GRNET, HEAnet, RESTENA, SWITCH, HUNGARNET, GARR-B, POL-34, RCCN, RedIRIS

11. National optical networking options
1 - Incremental wavelengths
Provision 10-Gbps ’s from provider(s) in the same way that SONET circuits are done for Abilene now
Exploit smaller incremental cost of additional ’s
2 - Dim Fiber
Partnership with a facilities-based provider
Acquisition of fiber IRU and subsequent O&M agreement for inter-PoP services (amplifiers, regenerators, DWD MUXes?)
Metro condominium fiber concept on the national scale
National footprint of 1-2 fiber pairs
IRU for the fiber alone could cost $10-20M
Most likely awaits the availability of lower-cost optical transmission equipment
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12. Future of Abilene Original UCAID/Qwest MoU amended on October 1, 2001
Extension of Qwest’s original commitment to Abilene for another 5 years – 10/01/2006
Originally expired March, 2003
Upgrade of Abilene backbone to optical transport capability - ’s
x4 increase in the core backbone bandwidth
OC-48c SONET (2.5 Gbps) to 10-Gbps DWDM
Capability for flexible provisioning of ’s to support future point-to-point experimentation & other projects
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13. Key aspects of next backbone - I
Native IPv6
Motivations
Resolving IPv4 address exhaustion issues
Preservation of the original End-to-End Architecture model
p2p collaboration tools, reverse trend to CO-centrism
International collaboration
Router and host OS capabilities
Run natively - concurrent with IPv4
Replicate multicast deployment strategy
Close collaboration with Internet2 IPv6 Working Group on regional and campus v6 rollout
Addressing architecture
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14. Key aspects of the backbone - II
Network resiliency
Abilene ’s will not be protected a la SONET
Increasing use of videoconferencing/VoIP impose tighter restoration requirements (<100 ms)
Options:
Currently: MPLS/TE fast reroute
Would prefer IP-based IGP fast convergence
Addition of new measurement capabilities
Enhance active probing
Latency & jitter, loss, TCP throughput
Add passive measurement taps
Support of Internet2 End-to-End Performance Initiative
Intermediate performance beacons
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16. Regional optical fanout
Next generation architecture: Regional & state based optical networking projects are critical
three-level hierarchy: Backbone, GigaPoPs/ARNs, campuses
Leading examples
CENIC ONI (California), I-WIRE (Illinois),
SURA Crossroads (Southeastern U.S), Indiana, Ohio
Collaboration with the Quilt
Regional Optical Networking project
U.S. carrier DWDM access is now not nearly as widespread as with SONET circa 1998
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17. Conclusions Abilene future
UCAID’s partnership with Qwest extended through 2006
Backbone to be upgraded to 10-Gbps in three phases starting spring 2002
Capability for flexible  provisioning in support of future experimentation in optical networking
Overall approach to the new technical design and business plan is for an incremental, non-disruptive transition
Follow-on network most likely will be developed around a national dark fiber facility and will utilize next generation optical transport technology
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18. For more information
Web:
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