1. NOAA’s NWS Telecommunication Gateway RTH Washington
Dan Starosta, Telecommunications Gateway Operations Branch
Office of the Chief Information Officer
NOAA’s National Weather Service
FAA FTI Brief & Tour
March 14, 2007

2. NWSTG Functional Overview
The NWSTG is
the central communication facility of the NWS;
the primary acquisition and distribution center for NWS data and products;
the primary acquisition and distribution center for international data and products to meet WMO, ICAO and bi-laterally agreed US requirements;
A major data exchange hub for NOAA and other agency data and products.

3. NWSTG Functional Overview
The NWSTG includes
WMO Regional Telecommunication Hub (RTH) Washington
ICAO OPMET Databank (KWBCYMYX)
the ASOS Operations and Monitoring Center (AOMC)
Operational oversight of U.S. federal automated surface observing systems
the AWIPS Network Control Facility (NCF)
AWIPS is the main NWS’ system which supports the NWS forecast and warning mission requirement
The NCF is the central communications hub and technical support center for AWIPS

4. Data Input to the NWSTG Data Input Methods IP / Sockets X.25
Asynchronous
FTP – –
Web -

5. Dissemination Systems
International National
NWWS
NWR
LDAD
Family Of Services (FOS)
Interagency Connections
SBN/NOAAPORT
AWIPS*
* Although not dissemination systems these are systems that are critical to the process
GTS
ISCS
EMWIN
Internet
GMDSS
NWS Telecom. Gateway*

6. NWS Telecommunications Gateway (NWSTG)
GTS
Other Agencies
NCEP
NESDIS
Family of Services
Public Product Service
Domestic Data Service3
International Data Service
High Resolution Data Service
Server Access Service
Radar Products Service
NWSTG
NCF
ISCS
EMWIN
NOAAPORT
Watches, Warnings, Advisories, & Statements
GOES

8. Replacement / Backup TG Description
NWS users
Nat’l Centers for Environ. Prediction
NWS Regional Offices
Domestic/int’l observation & forecast offices
AWIPS
Worldwide users
WMO/ICAO
Family of services
Govt. agencies
Internet users
Foreign countries
Emergency mgrs
NWS Telecom Gateway
Located in Silver Spring
New message switching syst.
allows future upgrades
x 2 upgradeability
Much improved response time
Redundancy ensures
uninterrupted service
Full configuration management
120GB/46
1500 GB
85GB/38
250 GB
Geographically separated
backup system in northern
Virginia
90GB/46
900 GB
950GB/38
3500 GB
Daily Throughput/# of circuits
Current over projected growth

9. Government Networking Requirements
IP-based networking solution
Any-to-any connectivity
High degree of bandwidth scalability
Optimum redundancy and survivability
IP convergence (i.e., voice, video and data over IP)
High-end performance
Network security remains paramount, particularly in light of today’s socio-political threats
Segmentation from the public Internet
Minimizes risk of security or privacy breaches
Sprint Proprietary – Speakers notes are intended for internal use only
Last Updated – July 17, 2003
Government and state agencies tend to be “IP-savvy”
They see the clear benefits associated with utilizing network services based on IP
As such, many government departments and agencies are being mandated to move away from Layer 2-based environments (i.e., Frame Relay, ATM) and migrate to IP-based solutions
The key benefits inherent in IP-based solutions are as follows:
Any-to-any connectivity – the Internet Protocol (IP) is ubiquitous (widely available and supported) and enables various locations to directly connect to one another both easily and securely
Fully-meshed environments (every location connected to every other location) are more readily and cost-effectively achieved with IP solutions
High degree of bandwidth scalability – many legacy solutions cannot meet the government’s requirements for high bandwidth
Frame Relay, for example, taps out at DS3 (45Mpbs) with PVCs available at only a fraction of that bandwidth
IP solutions readily and cost-effectively scale to OC48 (2.5Gig) and higher
Optimum redundancy and survivability – unlike statically switched legacy alternatives (i.e., Frame Relay, ATM, etc.) which are based on a number of limited, pre-defined paths, IP networks are based on intelligent routing
IP allows customer traffic to be dynamically routed around network outages or congestion enabling each packet to take the most optimal path through the network
Statically switched alternatives, however, limit traffic flows to one (or, at best, two) paths, which does not provide the flexibility to route around outages or congestion without incurring substantial delay or packet loss
IP convergence - as previously mentioned, the IP protocol is ubiquitous
IP is the de-facto standard for internal networks and applications
The majority of underlying traffic on Frame or ATM networks is in fact IP in origin
Given that most applications are IP in origin, it makes sense to run them over an IP core that does not subject the customer’s applications to the additional overhead of Layer 2 networks
As voice and video become more IP compliant, it becomes possible for the govt. to run all of their voice, video and data applications over the same network, thereby lowering costs and complexity
High-end performance - IP routing infrastructure has surpassed Layer 2 switching alternatives in terms of speed and availability.
Many government customer may have concerns with IP solutions that run over backbones that are part of the public Internet
By virtue of being part of the Internet, the underlying architecture of public IP networks is visible to the rest of the Internet and therefore subject to conventional Internet risks, the most notable being distributed denial of service (DDOS) attacks
With DDOS, malicious parties work to flood network routers with traffic in an attempt to bring down portions of the network
It should be noted that on Sprint’s public IP network (SprintLink) DDOS is a theoretical risk, but Sprint employs a host of security measures that result in DDOS and other hacking attempts being a practical impossibility
However, for customers that have high security and privacy concerns and are willing to pay a premium, a private network that is sealed off and separate from the public Internet can provide additional levels of protection and peace of mind

10. MPLS Network NOAANet NOAANet GTS Other Intnl Non IP Internet
IP connections
Range of speeds:
Fractional T1, T1
Multi-Megabit T1
Fractional DS3, Full DS3
10Mb Ethernet
100Mb Fast Ethernet
OC3 and OC12
NOAANet
PIP
Gateway
Upgrading to OC-12
GTS
Other Intnl
Non IP
Internet

11. Issues Data Explosion Bandwidth
Increased resolution of observations and models
Increased frequency of observations and models
Increased number of sensors
Improved sensing technology
New spatial and temporal requirements
Graphics, imagery, and video
Thousands of small products
Bandwidth
Technology selection
Estimation of capacity growth
Transmission of ‘information’ versus ‘raw data’

12. New Technologies Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
Digital Video Broadcast
Optical Networks
Multi Protocol Label Switching (MPLS)
Wireless
Public-Key Infrastructure (PKI)
New Data Formats
Table driven – Binary & XML
Data discovery based exchange

13. Thank You!
Questions?
Discussion