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National Networking Update

Basil IrwinSenior Network Engineer

National Center for Atmospheric Research

SCD Network Engineering and Technology Section (NETS)

January 27, 1999

Supercomputing • Communications • Data

NCAR Scientific Computing Division

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Summary of Topics

• Review status of Next Generation Internet (NGI) Initiative

• Review status of NSF’s vBNS Network

• Review status of UCAID’s Abilene Network (Internet2)

• Review the Gigapop concept

• Review Front Range GigaPop (FRGP) status



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NGI Initiative Review



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What Is the NGI Initiative?

• The NGI Initiative is a plan to implement the President's Oct 10, 1996 statement in Knoxville, TN of his "commitment to a new $100 million initiative, for the first year, to improve and expand the Internet . . .”

• The Next Generation Internet (NGI) IS NOT a network

• It’s a Presidential funding initiative

• The next step in Federal funding for seeding the evolving US networking infrastructure

• Goal was to provide $100 million annual initiative of money for 3 years

• Plan is at: www.ccic.gov/ngi/concept-Jul97



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How Will The NGI Initiative Work

• Federal research agencies with existing mission-oriented networks to take the lead

• Built on Federal/private partnerships:– Between advanced technology researchers and advanced

application researchers

– Between federally-funded network testbeds and commercial network service and equipment providers

• Requires substantial private-sector matching funds.– Two to one ratio of private to Federal funds



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FY1998 Funding

• $85 million:– $42 DARPA

– $23 NSF

– $10 NASA

– $5 NIST

– $5 National Library of Medicine/National Institute of Health

• DOE to be added in FY1999

• $109 million proposed for FY1999



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Three NGI Initiative Goals

• Main NGI goal is to advance three networking areas:– Goal 1: Advanced network technologies (e.g., protocols to

transfer data that is being browsed)

– Goal 2: Advanced network infrastructure (e.g., wires and boxes that transmit the browsed data)

– Goal 3: Revolutionary applications (e.g., Web browsers)



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Goal 1: Advanced Network Technologies

• Advanced technologies:– Quality of service (QOS)

– Security and robustness

– Net management, including bandwidth allocation and sharing

– System engineering tools, metrics, statistics, and analysis

– New or modified protocols: routing, switching, multicast, security, etc.

– Collaborative and distributed application environment support

– Operating system improvements to support advanced services

• Achieved by funding university, Federal, and industry R&D to develop and deploy advanced services

• Done in open environment, utilizing IETF, ATM Forum, etc.



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Goal 2: Network Infrastructure

• Subgoal 1: Develop demo net fabric that delivers 100 Mbps end-to-end to 100+ interconnected sites

– Accomplished by collaboration of Federal research institutions, telecommunications providers, and Internet providers

– Interconnect and expand vBNS (NFS), ESnet (DOE), NREN (NASA), DREN (DOD), and others (such as the Internet2/Abiliene)

– Funds universities, industry R&D, and Federal research institutions

– Subgoal 1 fabric generally expected to be highly reliable



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Goal 2: Network Infrastructure

• Subgoal 2: Develop demo net fabric that delivers 1000 Mbps end-to-end to about 10 interconnected sites

– May be separate fabric with links to the Subgoal 1 fabric, and/or may include upgraded parts of the Subgoal 1 fabric

– Would involve very early technology implementations and wouldn't likely be as reliable as Subgoal 1 fabric

• Federal agencies would take the lead

• Commercialize advances ASAP

• Utilize IETF, ATM Forum et. al. to foster freely available commercial standards



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Goal 3: Revolutionary Applications

• (Note: Real revolutionary applications are never found in a government-generated list)

• Some possible "revolutionary" applications:– Health care: telemedicine

– Education: distance ed; digital libraries

– Scientific research: energy, earth systems, climate, biomed research

– National Security: high-performance global data comm

– Environment: monitoring, prediction, warning, response

– Government: better delivery of services

– Emergencies: disaster response, crisis management

– Design and Manufacture: manufacturing engineering

• "NGI will not provide funding support for applications per se"; will fund addition of networking to existing apps.



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NGI Initiative Expectations

• Fund 100+ high-performance connections to research universities and Federal research institutions

• 100+ science applications will use the new connections

• 10+ improved Federal information services

• 30+ government-industry-academia R&D partnerships

• NGI program funding leveraged by two-to-one by these partnerships



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NGI Initiative Proposed Mangement

• NGI Implementation Team

• Under LSN Working Group

• One member from each directly funded agency

• (Not clear to me what say-so this Team has over expenditures)



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JET: Joint Engineering Team



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JET

• Affinity group of:– NSF (vBNS)

– NASA (NREN/NISN)

– DARPA (DREN)

– DOE (ESnet)

– UCAID/Internet2 (Abilene)

• Group that is engineering the NGIXes



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NGIXes: Next Generation Internet Exchanges



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NGIXes

• NAPs for Federal lab neworks to interconnect

• Layer 2

• ATM-based

• Minimum connection-speed is OC-3

• Replace FIXes (really FIX-W, FIX-E already gone)

• Three of ‘em– West coast: NASA-Ames

– East coast: NASA-Goddard

– Mid contintent: Chicago (at MREN/STARTAP)



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Final Thoughts

• The NGI isn't a network: it's the improved network infrastructure that presumably results from the NGI Initiative

• The NSF’s vBNS does benefit from NGI funding.

• The Internet2/Abilene is an activity independent from the NGI Initiative, and does not really benefit from NGI funding



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vBNS Review



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vBNS: History



• vBNS goals– jumpstart use of high-performance networking for advanced

research while advancing research itself with high-performance networking

– supplement Commodity Internet which has been inadequate for universities since NSFnet was decommissioned

• vBNS started about 3 years ago with the NSF supercomputing centers

• vBNS started adding universities about 2 years ago

• Currently 77 institutions connected to vBNS– 21 more in progress

• 131 institutions approved for connection to vBNS

• NSF funding for vBNS ends March 2000

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vBNS: The Network

• Operated by MCI

• ATM based network using mainly IP

• OC-12 (622-Mbps) backbone

• OC-3 (155-Mbps) & DS-3 (45-Mbps) to institutions

• 77 institutions currently connected– 21 more in progress



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STAR TAP



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STAR TAP



• Science, Technology And Research Transit Access Point

• NSF-designated NAP for attachment of international networks to the vBNS

• Colocated with MREN, NSF/Ameritech NAP, and mid continent NGIX

– Is really just a single large ATM switch

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vBNS and NCAR

• NCAR was an original vBNS node

• 40 of 63 UCAR member-universities are approved for vBNS (at last check on 8/1998)

• Major benefit for UCAR and its members– greatly superior to the Commodity Internet

– example: more UNIDATA data possible

– example: terabyte data transfers possible



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Abilene Review



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Abilene: History

• First called the Internet2 Project

• Then non-profit UCAID (University Corporation for Advanced Internet Development) was founded

– UCAID is patterned after the UCAR model

– UCAID currently has 130 members (mostly universities)

• Abilene is the name of UCAID’s first network

• Note: Internet2 used to refer to:– the Internet organization, which is now called UCAID

– the actual network, which is now named Abilene

– the concept for a future network, soon to be reality in the form of Abilene



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Abilene: Goals

• Goals: jumpstart use of high-performance networking for advanced research while advancing research itself with high-performance networking (same as vBNS)

• But to be operated and managed by the members themselves, like the UCAR model

• Provide an alternative when NSF support of the vBNS terminates on March 2000



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Abilene: The Basic Network

• Uses Qwest OC48 (2.4Gbps) fiber optic backbone– grow to OC192 (9.6Gbps) fiber optic backbone

– Qwest to donate .5 billion worth of fiber leases over 5 years

• Hardware provided by Cisco Systems and Nortel (Northern Telecom)

• Internet Protocol (IP) over SONET– no ATM layer

• Uses 10 core router nodes at Qwest POPs– Denver is one of these



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Abilene: Status



• Abilene soon to be designated by NSF as an NSF-approved High-Performance Network (HPN)

– puts Abilene on an equal basis with vBNS

• Abilene reached peering agreement with vBNS so NSF HPC (High Performance Connection) schools have equal access to each other regardless of vBNS or Abilene connection

• UCAID expects Abilene to come online 2/1999– UCAID expects 50 universities online on 2/1999

– UCAID expects 13 gigapops online on 2/1999

• Abilene beta network now includes a half-dozen universities

– plus exchanging routes with vBNS

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Abilene and NCAR

• 48 of 63 UCAR member-universities are UCAID members (at last check on 8/1998)

• NSF funding of vBNS terminates March 2000

• Same benefit for UCAR and its members as vBNS– greatly superior to the Commodity Internet

– example: more UNIDATA data possible

– example: terabyte data transfers possible



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The GigaPop Concept



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GigaPops: What Good Are They?

• Share costs through sharing infrastructure

• Aggregate to a central location and share high-speed access from there

• Share Commodity Internet expenses

• Essentially statistical multiplexing of expensive high-speed resources

– at any given time much more bandwidth is available to each institution than each could afford without sharing

• Share engineering and management expertise

• More clout with vendors



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Front Range GigaPop (FRGP)



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FRGP: Current NCAR GigaPop Services

• vBNS access

• Shared Commodity Internet access

• Intra-Gigapop access

• Web cache hosting

• 24 x 365 NOC (Network Operation Center)

• Engineering and management



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FRGP+Abilene: What Should NCAR Do?

• Why should NCAR connect to Abilene?– Abilene gives NCAR additional connectivity to most of its member

institutions

– fate of vBNS is unknown after March 2000

– 48 of 63 UCAR members are also Internet2 members

• Why should NCAR join a joint FRGP/Abilene effort?– combined FRGP/Abilene effort saves NCAR money



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FRGP: Why NCAR as GP Operator?

• NCAR already has considerable gigapop operational experience

• NCAR is already serving the FRGP members– Abilene connection is an incremental addition to existing gigapop

– doesn’t require a completely new effort from scratch

• NCAR already has a 24 x 365 NOC– at no extra charge

• NCAR has an existing networking staff to team with the new FRGP engineer

– at no extra cost

• NCAR is university-neutral



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FRGP: Membership Types

• “Full” members– both Commodity Internet + Abilene access

• Commodity-only members– just Commodity Internet access



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FRGP: Full Members

• University of Colorado - Boulder

• Colorado State University

• University of Colorado - Denver

• University Corporation for Atmospheric Research

• University of Wyoming



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FRGP: Commodity-only Members

• Colorado School of Mines

• Denver University

• University of Northern Colorado



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FRGP: Possible Future Members

• U of C System

• NOAA/Boulder

• NIST/Boulder

• NASA/Boulder



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FRGP: But!!!

• This is far from a done deal at this time!

• Members still have funding issues

• No agreements have yet been decided

• Etc.



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FRGP: Why a Denver Gigapoint?

• Much cheaper for most members to backhaul to Denver instead of to existing NCAR gigapoint

– U of Wyoming, Colorado State, UofC Denver

• UofC Denver has computer room space that’s two blocks from Denver’s telco hotel.

• But also don’t want to re-engineer NCAR gigapoint– wanted to preserve vBNS backhaul to NCAR

– wanted to preserve MCI Commodity Internet backhaul to NCAR

– wanted to minimize changes to the existing gigapoint

• Incremental addition of Denver gigapoint is most cost-effective engineering option



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FRGP: Routing Engineering

• Must deal with so-called policy-based routing– that is, IP forwarding based on packet source-IP-address

– example: some schools can use Abilene and some can’t

• Without high-speed source-IP-address routing, requires one forwarding-table (router) per policy

• FRGP has three identified policies at this time, for:– Commodity Internet only institutions

– Commodity Internet + Abilene institutions

– Commodity Internet + Abilene + vBNS institutions

• Use ATM and PVCs to construct the router topology to implement these policies

• Note: distributed gigapoints require care to site routers optimally



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FRGP: Abilene+Commodity Budget

• $851,000 total annual recurring costs– $133,000 per Full Member (5)

– $62,000 per Commodity-only Member (3)

• $150,000 one-time Abilene equipment costs

• This includes the following costs:– existing FRGP costs

» existing Commodity Internet access costs

– new Abilene costs

• Does not include vBNS costs, campus-backhaul costs, or other local campus costs

• (Reduced per-member costs if more join)



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FRGP: Annual Expenses

• Abilene + Commodity expenses

• Generic UCAID/Abilene costs– $25,000 UCAID annual dues (per full FRGP member: 5)

– $20,000 per-institution Abilene fee (per full FRGP member: 5)

– $110,000 per-gigapop Abilene fee (shared by 5)

– $12,000 per-gigapop Qwest/Abilene port fee (shared by 5)

• Costs specific to FRGP– $56,000 shared Boulder-Denver OC-3 link (shared by 5)

– $27,000 shared Denver-Qwest OC-3 link (shared by 5)

– $281,000 shared Commodity access fees (shared by 8)

– $140,000 other operational costs (shared by 8)

» engineer’s salary

» hardware Maintenance

» travel



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FRGP: Abilene Implications for NCAR

• New annual expenses of about $110,000 for NCAR

• Plus NCAR’s $50,00 share of startup costs

• NCAR employs & manages new FRGP engineer

• NCAR manages additional network equipment– including new off-site equipment in Denver

• Increased engineering responsibilities for NCAR

• Increased administrative/accounting responsibilities for NCAR



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Summary of URLs

• www.ngi.gov– www.ccic.gov/ngi/concept-Jul97

• www.vbns.net– www.vbns.net/presentations/workshop/vbns_tutorial/index.htm

• www.startap.net

• www.internet2.edu

• www.ccic.gov/jet– pointer to NAPs, major Federal networks, etc.



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