1. 1 © 2004, Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Aiken & Boromound Network Research Infrastructure “Back to the Future” (aka National Lambda Rail – NLR) Bob Aiken (raiken@cisco.com)raiken@cisco.com & Javad Boroumand (javadb@cisco.com)

2. 222 © 2004, Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Aiken & Boroumand Why go back to the future ? Major advances and impact were made during ARPANET and early NSFNET years They had concurrent application and network R&D WEB took off in early 90’s due to existence of a network research infrastructure Mid to late 90s we saw production networks only No collaboration between applications and network/system researchers (ie. network researchers were estranged ) Merging and interdependence of applications, networks, systems, storage, content, … Dark Fiber now allows Morphnet concept of 1997

3. 333 © 2004, Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Aiken & Boroumand Why go back to the future ? - continued The need was never greater for a research infrastructure that concurrently supports application, network, system, & security research & interplay - e.g.: GRIDs, GRID applications, Middleware, Multi-media … Evolution of real end to end networks and protocols Real network data for monitoring & analysis of network traffic Scalable, Secure, highly available, resilient networks New applications, e.g. VOIP, NEES, sensor networks, gaming, on demand computing, HD multi-media collaborations … Adaptive networks Network management, control planes, provisioning Scaling of all aspects wrt speeds, users, networks, hosts,… EmuLabs and VPNs are good for proof of concept - but ::

4. 444 © 2004, Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Aiken & Boroumand We need Network Research Infrastructure like the NLR for the following types of research End to end Security (IDS,DOS,firewalls, crypto) QoS Predictability GRIDS and Mware TCP evolution & efficiency FAST, HS-TCP, XCP SuperJumbo frames Reliable UDP RDMA Alternative transport High Availability, resiliency, fail over,… Peering (Lambda, Frame, Packet) Provisioning VPNs, IP, L2,L1, Policy, security Routing and addressing Network Management Control Planes and signalling Merging of end systems and network provided storage, computing, …

5. 555 © 2004, Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Aiken & Boroumand Historical Perspective: NLR is the next big US Research and Education community initiative Every 5 years the US national research networking infrastructure evolves to the next level 19881993 2003 NLR Research universities ownership with significant Cisco investment Connecting new generation of ‘regionals’ and driving regional R&E fiber projects National footprint; own dark fiber, DWDM, Ethernet and IP services First ever ‘dual-mission’ experimental and production national scale infrastructure 1998 Abilene Higher education membership funded through UCAID Main Internet2 backbone connecting “GigaPoPs” National footprint; Qwest managed Sonet and wave service; own IP service Production traffic only vBNS NSF funded; part NGI program Originally connecting supercomputing centers and NAPs; later expanded to all research universities National footprint; MCI managed ATM and IP service Production traffic but had a separate “testnet” NSFnet NSF funded Connecting “regionals” which along with the backbone commercialized the Internet National footprint; leased circuits; own IP service Production traffic with limited experimentation

6. 666 © 2004, Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Aiken & Boroumand NLR User Communities Big Science Projects High performance experimental and production network infrastructure of unparallel capabilities for applications level and distributed systems research (e.g., TeraGrid, OptIPuter, HEP experiments, …) Networking & Distributed Systems Research Breakable and programmable experimental infrastructure for networking research at various layers (ie. 1 thru 9) Commodity and general purpose R&E networking Production infrastructure for cost reduction purposes, regional aggregation, commodity Internet access, K-12, Federal/Gov networks and international transit, etc.

7. 777 © 2004, Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Aiken & Boroumand Research & Education Network Tiers Advanced Education Networks Next generation architecture and applications for research community Advanced services for education General Use Commodity Internet I2-Abilene, Ukerna,DFN, CALREN, GEANT, NLR ISPs Teragrid, DATA GRID, CALREN, SINET, NLR LEADERS NETWORK TYPE CAPABILITIES/USERS Experimental environments for network researchers Experimental Networks Research Web100, optical packet switching, NLR NATIONALLAMBDARAILNATIONALLAMBDARAIL &CENIC&CENIC

8. 888 © 2004, Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Aiken & Boroumand Network Tiers are a good idea - but … CENIC, NSF, and others advocating 3 types of “research networks” Good to focus on the 3 type of requirements – but > What we really need is ONE network that combines and concurrently supports all 3 types of network requirements Original goal of HPCC and NGI programs End to end (host-campus-LAN-MAN-WAN) Wavenet (L1), Framenet (L2), Packetnet L3) via same infrastructure The NLR is that network !

9. 999 © 2004, Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Aiken & Boroumand NLR networking research use vs. production use (MORPHNET concept) javadb@cisco.com 12Jan2003 Packet Net Frame Net Wave net

10. 10 © 2004, Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Aiken & Boroumand NLR - Potential Use Examples (courtesy of John Silvester [USC] & modified by Aiken) Packet Net Frame Net Wave net

11. 11 © 2004, Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Aiken & Boroumand NLR Footprint & PoP Types Phase 1 and planned Phase 2 SLC HOU DAL SYR TUL PEN ELP KAN PHO BAT LAX SAN ALB PIT WDC OGD BOI CLE ATL POR RAL CHI NYC SAA DEN SVL SEA JAC NLR WaveNet, FrameNet & PacketNet PoP NLR WaveNet & FrameNet PoP NLR WaveNet PoP NLR Owned Fiber Managed Wave

12. 12 © 2004, Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Aiken & Boroumand Challenges Network Aware Applications Checkpointing & “serial 1 mentality” Merged network, system, middleware, and applications Exposure of network and systems to applications in a secure manner End to end networking System, building, campus, metro, regional, state, nation, international L1- L3 networks Convergence, control Complexity of design and operation NOC support for concurrent production & research infrastructures Research in and of itself Mindset Research verticals (apps, networks, systems, GRIDs) need to work together Concurrent production & research

13. 13 © 2004, Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Aiken & Boroumand Summary To really make advances we need to go back to the ARPANET and early NSFNET concept where applications, middleware, security, network management, systems management, and network (layers 1-9) R&D coexist and compliment each other on the same infrastructure These were the goals of the HPCC and NGI programs We need campus, metro, state, regional and national research infrastructures to support this goal NLR is the only such National infrastructure so designed to support this challenge

14. 14 © 2004, Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Aiken & Boroumand References NLR : http:// http://www.nlr.net/ Communications of ACM, January,2004, Volume 47, Number 1, pps 93-98 “Network and Computing Research Infrastructure : The Need to go Back to the Future” by Aiken, Boroumand, Wolff Morphnet (1997) http://www.anl.gov/ECT/Public/research/morphnet.html

15. 15 © 2004, Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Aiken & Boroumand Extra slides The rest are extra slides

16. 16 © 2004, Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Aiken & Boroumand NLR PoP Architecture CRS-1 7600 15808 15500 15454 15500 15454 15500 15454 Carrier Colo DWDM 1GE 10GE or OC192 EastWest Metro and regional nets NLR demarc Campus Pull Thru 10GE -6500 10GE -15540/30 1G - various

17. 17 © 2004, Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Aiken & Boroumand NLR Planned Capabilities and Services Point-to-point waves 10GE, OC192, (future: 1GE, OC48) Using Cisco 15808 long haul and extended long haul and Cisco 15454 extended metro DWDM systems Switched Ethernet Using Cisco 6500 switches Routed IP Using Cisco 7600, 12400, and CRS-1 routers Dark fiber for optical layer research Traditional NOC services but also “Experiments Support Center” services Instrumentation, measurement, config/re-config management, tool development

18. 18 © 2004, Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Aiken & Boroumand NLR Regional Networks NLR Fiber Routes NLR Leased Managed Wave Routes NLR PoP CENIC LEARN FLR PNWG NCLR MATP SLR Solid color indicates current or shortly pending NLR membership Striped color indicates interest in NLR membership CIC FRGP Northern Lights NMG LONI Cornell/NYSERnet/NEREN PGP OneNet OARNet GPN

19. 19 © 2004, Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Aiken & Boroumand Current NLR Participants Corp for Education Network Initiatives in Calif. (CENIC) Pacific Northwest GigaPOP (PNWGP) Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center Duke (representing coalition of NC universities) Mid-Atlantic Terascale Partnership Cisco Systems Internet2 Florida LambdaRail Georgia Institute of Technology Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC) Lone Star Education and Research Network (LEARN) - Texas Cornell University – New York Louisana Board of Regents (LONI) University of New Mexico