1. UKLight DF UKLight DF Plans for the UKLight Dark Fibre Network UKLIGHT Town Meeting National e-Science Centre, Edinburgh

2. UKLight DF UKLight DF Setting the Scene n Today, bandwidth is the key ingredient for nearly every initiative and service within higher education institutions n Research in particular is driving the need for additional bandwidth n Advances in the tools used for teaching and learning have also driven an increase in demand beyond research n We need to get control over the infrastructure that connects our campuses and labs n Dark fibre has become the key enabler for institutions to get control over their BW needs for research, teaching and learning

3. UKLight DF UKLight DF Basic Terminology n Lit service: n Is a connection that you purchase from a telecommunications provider n A specified amount of bandwidth for a specified monthly cost n The provider handles all the elements between your campus router and the router at the destination n Dark fibre: n Is a fibre optic connection path that has not been lit n Dark fibre is something you acquire, either through buying or leasing unused fibre, or through installing new fibre n You own the path and you are responsible for the integrity of that path, and for acquiring equipment to light the fibre and make it carry information

4. UKLight DF UKLight DF Why DF? n Primary drivers: n Low cost & simplicity n Simple network design (no SDH, no ATM): Use of raw lambdas or Ethernet-Interfaces all over the place n Transparent optical paths n Network scalable to multiples of 10 Gbps or 40 Gbps with low additional cost n Natural hierarchy of technologies DWDM on main trunk lines (128  today, expandable if later needed) n CWDM or single GE to smaller sites off the backbone n Long living infrastructure, no need to change provider every couple of years n Interruptions mainly due to planned maintenance n True fiber cuts are rare, but last for hours if not days (e.g. fiber on high voltage power lines, fiber along railway) n Independence of carrier market

5. UKLight DF UKLight DF Why DF? n Long term benefits: n Liberating effect on users and applications constrained by BW n Organizations increase their performance and availability by sharing infrastructure and resources with other organizations/institutes n i.e. creation of virtual laboratories, libraries, remote instrumentation n Radical change to the current Telecom model n Customer-empowered and customer-controlled network models n Extending the Internet model of peering autonomous networks from the logical to the physical layer: n hundreds of "customer-owned " networks interconnected by "customer-owned" w avelengths on long-haul DWDM systems

6. UKLight DF UKLight DF Pros and Cons of DF Networks Technical ViewOperational ViewEconomic View Stable, long living infrastructure We are the boss Low recurring cost High future potential (transparency, upgradeability) Χ Big effort for negotiations with a lot of contract partners Low marginal cost for additional bandwidth Experimenting with new network concepts and technologies Χ No single provider to blame in case of connection loss Χ High initial investment Χ NoneΧ Need personnel to maintain the network Χ Uncertainty about development of BW prices Pros ( ) & Cons ( Χ )

7. UKLight DF UKLight DF Who Needs DF Networks n Corporations with high Bandwidth requirements, hospitals, banks n Reduce the cost of line rentals n Security - reliability n Future increase of BW / network updates n Improve client-business relations (online products, services) n Storage – computational - visualization – media facilities n Variety of speed connections with respect of the equipment used (2.5Gb/s – 10Gb/s) n Offer greater variety of services without restriction by the carriers infrastructure n Research Facilities – Universities – Colleges n Experimental test-beds – new technologies protocols and applications n Distributed resources (libraries, databases, computing facilities)

8. UKLight DF UKLight DF DF Fundamental Enabler of Research n Researchers around the world are acquiring DF or dedicated wavelengths on DF for specific experiments and Grids n We are currently creating a pool of wavelengths and fibres dedicated to specific applications the same way we have today a pool of distributed computing and storage resources n Without fibre and wavelength resources research communities will be unable to support their future computational and communication needs

9. UKLight DF UKLight DF Optical fibre (bits/sec double every 9 months) Data Storage (bits per square inch double every 12 months) Silicon Computer Chips (Number of transistors double every 18 months) Source: Scientific American Why DF will become the 21 st Century Driver for Computing Optical Technologies offer huge capacity at relatively cost Bandwidth is getting cheaper and faster than storage and storage is getting cheaper and faster than computing. It makes sense to use BW in order to conserve silicon area and transistors

10. UKLight DF UKLight DF Examples of DF Networks for the Research Community The SURFnet6 Network I-WIRE

11. UKLight DF UKLight DF NNW Manchester St Pancras EastNet Cambridge EastNet Cambridge Warrington C-PoP ULCC - LAB 10G Leased Bandwidth ULCC Amsterdam 10G Chicago 10G Leeds C-PoP Leeds C-PoP C&NLMAN Lancaster CLRC-RAL Reading C-PoP YHMAN Leeds UKLight International and Phases 1 & 2

12. UKLight DF UKLight DF UKLight Dark Fibre Network: Phases 1&2 LEANET Fibre UKLight DF Fibre UCL Southampton Aston Cambridge Essex Adastral Park Manchester eMerlin fibre Netherlight Starlight Connection to other facilities Lancaster Leeds Reading CCLRC-RAL UKLight International nodes & connectivity to international exchanges

13. UKLight DF UKLight DF UKLight DF for UK Photonics Research Essex Cambridge UCL Aston Southampton International UKLight DF Wavelength routed test-bed Optical packet core router and edge interfaces 160 Gb/sec OTDM facility 4x160 Gb/sec OTDM test-bed Recirculating loop Raman amplifiers BT Labs CIP (Centre of Integrated Photonics) Agile WDM channel generation (< 10 ns) Optical regenerators (10 & 40 Gb/s) DWDM Wavelength Routers WDM test beds for 10, 40, 160 Gb/s Optical regeneration OCDMA test bed Ultrafast links and switches for OTDM routing Low cost links for 40 Gb/s Quantum dot based switches, amplifiers and routers for ultrabroadband WDM operation

14. UKLight DF UKLight DF The Optical Network Will Create the Backbone for High Performance-Data Intensive Grid Computing Applications & Middleware Computing clusters and storage Dynamic optical network Optical switching interfaces signalling & monitoring WDM links -switching or hybrid solutions Optical burst switching Optical packet switching CONTROLPLANECONTROLPLANE GUNIGRNI

15. UKLight DF UKLight DF Proposal for a Network Demonstrator OPS Agile Interface MEM+SOA based optical routers with signal monitoring & selective O-E-O & optical regeneration /OBS/OPS OADM Agile Interface Data Network Fast reconfigurable OADMs UK Social Sciences Data Archive 10-40 Gbit/sec nsec agility Electrical Telecom Subnetwork (Adastral Park) Peering optical router Computational resources Data Intensive Users Agile OBS Interface RANI RSNI >10 Gbit/sec msec agility Cambridge ASTON UCL Essex OPS: Optical Packet Switching OBS: Optical Burst Switching SOA: Semiconductor Optical amplifier RSNI: Resource Scheduling Interface RANI: Resource Allocation Interface UKLight DF Links  sec agility >40 Gbit/sec msec agility Data Intensive Users RSNIRSNI Agile Interface

16. UKLight DF UKLight DF OXCs Input Node Control 1 N Tx Rx Selective Regeneration Rx Tx Output Monitoring OWS Conditioning

17. UKLight DF UKLight DF Optical Packet Router

18. UKLight DF UKLight DF Agile  Optical Interface for and Sub- Granularities

19. UKLight DF UKLight DF Thank you! dsimeo@essex.ac.uk